1. Due to issues with external spam filters, QQ is currently unable to send any mail to Microsoft E-mail addresses. This includes any account at live.com, hotmail.com or msn.com. Signing up to the forum with one of these addresses will result in your verification E-mail never arriving. For best results, please use a different E-mail provider for your QQ address.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. For prospective new members, a word of warning: don't use common names like Dennis, Simon, or Kenny if you decide to create an account. Spammers have used them all before you and gotten those names flagged in the anti-spam databases. Your account registration will be rejected because of it.
    Dismiss Notice
  3. Since it has happened MULTIPLE times now, I want to be very clear about this. You do not get to abandon an account and create a new one. You do not get to pass an account to someone else and create a new one. If you do so anyway, you will be banned for creating sockpuppets.
    Dismiss Notice
  4. If you wish to change your username, please ask via conversation to tehelgee instead of asking via my profile. I'd like to not clutter it up with such requests.
    Dismiss Notice
  5. Due to the actions of particularly persistent spammers and trolls, we will be banning disposable email addresses from today onward.
    Dismiss Notice
  6. A note about the current Ukraine situation: Discussion of it is still prohibited as per Rule 8
    Dismiss Notice
  7. The rules regarding NSFW links have been updated. See here for details.
    Dismiss Notice
  8. The testbed for the QQ XF2 transition is now publicly available. Please see more information here.
    Dismiss Notice

Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

Discussion in 'Creative Writing' started by TanaNari, Jan 10, 2015.

Tags:
Loading...
  1. Threadmarks: Amelia, Ch 214
    TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2015
    Messages:
    24,348
    Likes Received:
    260,014
    Amelia, Ch 214


    "That sounds so boring," Vicky argued. "You have all this cool stuff. You should use it mercilessly." I paused to listen, it wasn't like I had much else to do right now. Taylor was off with her dad again. I probably could have went with, but it didn't seem right cutting into their family time like that. Despite the public identity, Taylor liked to keep her father away from her cape life, and vice versa.


    "But that's not how it's done!" Riley whined. "It has to be normal or it's not fun!"


    "Never thought I'd hear you say something like that," Zach spoke up. "Oww. Riley, please stop teaching people how to not set off my rejuvenation power. It's lost its charm."


    "She has a point," Missy replied, completely ignoring Zach's comment. "All the cool toys just get in the way. It needs to be the traditional way. Especially since this is Riley's first time." The fuck are they talking about?


    "Really? That's awful," Theo spoke up. "Okay, normal way it is. Missy, you need to change. Vicky, you too."


    "No I don't," Vicky insisted. "You can do what you want, but I make this look way too good to give it up. Just check out these curves."


    "Yes ma-oww!" Zach exclaimed.


    "Emma," Theo continued. "You can find something to put on. Sorry."


    Okay, now I have to know. I finally walked into the group area. Riley was closest, wearing a headband with two red puffballs held up cheap aluminum stems. Vicky was dressed up in a very realistic copy of Alexandria's costume, though without the helmet. She'd even turned her hair black.


    Missy was dressed up as a knight, although the outfit looked far too realistic to be any kind of store bought costume. I saw Zach and just sighed. "Zach... why are you dressed up like a princess?"


    "What?" he put his hand on his hip in a complete mockery of feminine grace. "Oh, I see how it is. Missy gets to anachronistically cross dress and you're not asking her any questions. But when a maaaan does it, suddenly it's wrong."


    "I wanted Theo to wear it, but he chickened out," Missy complained.


    "He doesn't have the hips to pull it off anyway," Emma teased, putting her arm around Zach. "But now I don't have a costume. Do you know how hard it was to get a dragon costume to go with the theme? From Dragon, no less."


    "You're suppose to be giving her armor a biotech interface upgrade," I pointed out. "Not wearing it to go trick or treating."


    "Well, it needs field testing," Emma argued.


    "Where's Eric?" I asked.


    "Oh, apparently he's too old for trick or treating," Vicky informed us. "He's at a party with Crystal, Sabah and Lily. I'll probably swing by later, after the bartender gets too bored to check for ID. It'll be just like old times."


    "Vicky," I replied dryly. "You do realize that regeneration means you're immune to alcohol, right?"


    "What?" she asked. "Seriously?"


    "Yup," I confirmed. "And pretty much every other drug, illegal or otherwise, that you can come across."


    "Well, fu-udge me then," she sighed. "No wonder Lung had anger issues. Can't get drunk, there's nothing left to punch, can't even take a cat nap. How is a girl suppose to relax around here?"


    "Speaking as someone in the same boat," Zach spoke up. "Whenever I need some good stress relief, I-"


    "Finish that sentence and you won't get any 'relief' for a month," Emma threatened darkly.


    Zach paused. "Babe, you know I love you, but if you threaten to take away my video games I will have to break up with you."


    Emma glanced around. It was Vicky who started laughing first, and then I followed. That was the permission that everyone else needed to join in.


    "Umm... I don't get it?" Riley spoke up. We just laughed harder. And then the alarms went off. Fuck.


    I pulled out my phone and my stomach dropped. "Endbringer," I stated. ConcernAnticipationFocus. "The prediction tech thinks it's Behemoth."


    "He pussed out last time," Zach replied. "I bet a fifty he does it again."


    "I'll bet you five grand that you won't keep the princess costume on during the fight," Vicky added. "And it doesn't count unless it's over the battle armor."


    "You're on!" Zach ran off, and everyone else started scrambling as well. We needed our costumes, the real ones this time. The others would arrive in their own time. Honestly, we probably didn't need to rush, we had almost thirty minutes of warning time before they could even narrow down the target location. Over an hour of total ready time. New Delhi, we had over four hours of warning, but that was a fluke brought on by the Simurgh for maximum devastation. Over four times the number of capes were there as was typical, and it resulted in the highest casualties of any Endbringer, or for that matter any anything, in history.


    I slipped into my standard costume, then opened the floor beneath me so I could drop into the labs. My Dryad was now officially the least advanced tech in the building, but it was still my battle harness. Riley had her Clarice controls on and was waiting for me. "Think I can take Clarice into the front lines this time?" she asked.


    "Didn't you just finish making the new one?" I asked.


    "Yeah," she admitted. "But she's extra powerful now. I think she's good enough to fight Behemoth."


    "Let Taylor handle that," I told her while fusing my armor to my Dryad and climbing in. DeterminationThrill. I smiled. The SEB upgraded Zerg were incredible, and my General was just aching for a chance to really use them. "You focus on saving lives and running analysis with the rest of our tinkers. You're our best hope for learning how they're made, and how to shut down their makers. That's more important."


    Emma was busy suiting up as well. Her armor was, well, I wasn't sure how it worked. But it could give her over an hour in her hybrid state, with all the data collection advantages which that entailed. My armor overheard her conversation. "Behemoth's core should be in its lower body, if our estimates are correct," she spoke. "Try to sever a leg if possible, we want the densest EB tissue we can acquire for our tests and future weapon development. Atropos already knows. Sorry I couldn't get the majority of the tech completed. No, thank you. We're about to jump over, see you at the fight."


    Who was she talking to? I was about to ask her when I was interrupted when Crystal appeared in the middle of the lab, followed a minute or so later by Eric, Lily and Sabah. "Sorry it took so long," he apologized. "Took a bit of effort to sneak out of the party."


    "Our reputations are ruined forever," Lily complained.


    "I'm sorry!" he insisted. "I panicked. It was the first thing I could think of..."


    "Telling my classmate we were going off for a threesome was the first thing you could think of?" Lily growled.


    "It worked, didn't it?" he defended. "Did you have a better idea?"


    "How about anything?" she suggested. "Anything at all would have been a better idea. You're lucky I don't turn you back into a girl the hard way."


    "Well, at least I didn't say it was going to be a threesome with me," he argued. "So you don't have to worry too much."


    Sabah just stood there looking embarrassed.


    "Get in your costumes," I instructed. "You can vent your frustrations on Behemoth."


    Lily moved toward her armor, giving Eric one last glance. Sabah followed suit, and Eric started putting on his own suit. It was one of the generic outfits. The teams hadn't had a chance to really optimize his power, except to provide tinker bombs to teleport to the Endbringers. He'd mostly be watching from a safe location and rescuing the injured and teleporting the occasional Zerg into combat range for Taylor.


    We started shunting over. The mobile command center was already waiting, flanked by over a thousand zerglings and a hundred gargants. Most were the old fashioned variants, but we had plenty of the SEB upgraded versions, shimmering an unnaturally flawless white in the afternoon sun.


    "Rey called in," Trevor informed us from the command center. "He'll be catching a ride with Rapture."


    We destroyed the Simurgh with less than a quarter of these forces, I smiled. DeterminationCertainty. I looked over at Taylor who was only barely visible, but heading toward us fast. Today the hero killer would die.


    ============

    A/N- Yay Endbringers!

    ... Also, for anyone who can't figure out who Eric is? Let me preemptively call you a moron.
     
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2015
  2. Threadmarks: Amelia, Ch 215- Taylor
    TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2015
    Messages:
    24,348
    Likes Received:
    260,014
    Amelia, Ch 215- Taylor


    I landed next to Amelia. ConfidentSafe. "Welcome to the party," she greeted.


    We took our position, with everyone else forming clusters in front of us. The tech group was the obvious one, with Emma, Trevor and Riley for now. We'd fill out the ranks later with Ray and Rapture, the latter of whom might be instrumental in learning more about how the Endbringers thought and acted as a whole. Clarice would of course swap out with Riley instead of simply stand dumbly off to the side of the platform.


    Lisa also took her place in that group. She wasn't a tinker, but in many ways she was better equipped to understand the Endbringers than anyone. With any luck, Victoria's power would be useful as well, but I wasn't holding a lot of hope. A lot of thinkers get pointed at Endbringers, only a rare few have ever got anything useful from them.
    Then there was the 'big kid table' with Lily, Sabah, Crystal, and now Eric. It was remarkable how few on this team were actually adults, in retrospect. Eavesdropping was something I normally tried to avoid, but under the circumstances I wasn't so concerned.


    "Are you okay?" Crystal asked Eric.


    "Umm... not really," he admitted. "This is... I've only been a parahuman for about six months. I've never been in a real fight before, and my first is an Endbringer." Six months and he's never been in a fight? Six months ago was right around the time when Leviathan attacks Brockton Bay. I couldn't even remember the last time my life was so peaceful. Though, granted, things had gotten less dangerous of late. Having an army of monsters did that for you.


    "My first real fight was Leviathan," Sabah added, showing a rare amount of initiative. I liked the woman, but she really wasn't the leadership type.


    "Yeah," Crystal agreed. "Look, you won't even be in the thick of the battle. We've got an army of bug monsters that are going to do most of the heavy hitting. You just worry about getting people to safety. And that includes keeping yourself safe."


    "Thanks," he replied. "I guess I'm just afraid of fucking it up on my first time out."


    "Most veteran heroes are afraid the Endbringers," Lily replied. "You'd have to be insane or insanely powerful to not be. Just remember to stay calm and follow instructions. Trust that your team knows what it's doing. We've killed one Endbringer, we can kill another just as easily."


    They don't need our help, I decided.


    It would be a misnomer to say I turned my attention to the younger group, since I had the ability to focus on both. Zach, Theo, and Missy made up that core for now. They'd normally have all three of the tinkers with them, but those we needed in position and getting all the equipment up and running. Zach, for reasons I really didn't want to speculate upon, was wearing a 'slutty princess' halloween costume over his armor. Their conversation seemed fairly mundane, with Zach teasing Theo about radiation and glow in the dark sperm.


    AmusementAnticipation. "You probably shouldn't 'inspect the troops' when your girlfriends right next to you," Amelia teased. "You might make me think I'm not attractive anymore."


    I leaned over and gave her a peck on the cheek. "Whatever. We both know you're the one who gets to enjoy all the eye candy. Fifteen people, only five are guys. Of those guys, one is way too old, one was a girl, one is gay, and one is Zach."


    "You didn't even mention Theo," she pointed out.


    "Because Theo's not a guy anymore, he's Missy's property," I explained. "And if we're being honest, she's one of the capes I think could take us. Let's not tempt that fate. Besides, I'm happy right here." I wrapped my arm around her suit's arm. WarmSafeLove.


    "You really know how to butter a girl up," she smiled at me.


    "Yup," I agreed. "I know how to butter up exactly one girl. Luckily it's you, or things could get really awkward." AmusedPleased.


    Dragon's voice came on over the command center. "Tentative confirmation of Behemoth," she informed our tinkers and thinkers. "Tracking estimates surfacing to occur in East South East Asia."


    TrepidationConfusion. Oh, she must have picked up on my emotions. I opened all the coms just so no one was left out. "It's going to be China," I stated, there was no doubt. All the conversations died.


    "Probably," Lisa agreed. "It makes sense. We either go for the kill and potentially start a massive international incident, or we let the Endbringer do its thing and make ourselves look weak in the process." FrustrationAnger.


    "Another no win scenario," I agreed.


    "Dragon's making calls on our behalf," Emma informed us. "Alerting the Chinese government about the potential danger and offering our help. There's a chance that China will accept it."


    "They won't," Lisa responded. "What happened in New Delhi is being surpressed as much as possible by the CUI. They don't want to give their people the idea that outsiders are powerful enough to kill the Endbringers when they cannot."


    DisgustCertainty. "We're going anyway," Amelia commanded. Riley turned and jogged toward us. Clarice robotically moved into position at her station. "At least we're getting close. Whether we choose to attack, we'll worry about later. If we're lucky he'll go after somewhere else." HopeDoubt.


    "I'll relay that back to Dragon, if that's okay?" Emma offered.


    "Do it," I agreed. She took a minute speaking into the interdimensional com in the command center.


    "Dragon's acknowledged our decision, and is sending more detailed coordinates," Chariot informed us. Why hasn't he ever picked out a thematic code name, I wondered idly. Something to ask him about one day. "I'm uploading it into Lachesis' targeting system."


    We waited in silence for a few minutes. "Damn," Emma muttered. "I know it's not a surprise, but Lisa was right. They're claiming they have a plan of their own and that we can fuck off. In words only slightly more polite."


    ConcernDisgustDismissal. "We're still going anyway," Amelia insisted. "We are not going to let Behemoth destroy any more lives than we absolutely have to. If they want to bitch about it afterward, we'll deal with the consequences then."


    "Damn straight!" Victoria shouted. No one objected, not even Lisa. And I was sure she would have.


    "I've got the location," Lachesis informed us. "Chongqing."


    She stepped forward, or what would become our forward, which was more to our right. I watched space twist and ripple from her power. Creating tunnels of this size took time for her, more for the risk of accidentally cracking continents than any actual difficulty. Our command center passed through first, guided by Clarice. Then the zerg poured through, using the infrared trackers left behind for them to follow. Amelia and I waited as everyone filed through. We were the last ones to pass through the passageway to our analogue of southern China.


    "You know," I smiled at Amelia. "When you promised me an army, I was expecting giant hornets and relay bugs, not anti-Endbringer monsters."


    "And when you agreed to be my partner, I was expecting you to help lead the team, not an engagement," she teased right back.


    "I helped!" came Riley's muffled shout from her place in Amelia's armor.


    In thinking about it, she was right on both counts. "Yeah, you helped," I agreed. "Keep up the good work."


    =============

    A/N- Has it really been 25 chapters since we got a Taylor perspective? Wow.
     
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2015
  3. Threadmarks: Amelia, Ch 216
    TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2015
    Messages:
    24,348
    Likes Received:
    260,014
    Amelia, Ch 216


    "Establishing dimensional tunnel," Trevor spoke up after the command center landed in place. "Shunting over the relay bugs." The portable relays were built from slightly modified, especially fast dragonflies. They wouldn't be out of place in any part of the world, so we felt confident we could use them without our presense being noticed. The zerg all served as relay bugs as well, of course, but there was no way to use those without being noticed.


    I got my first look at Chongqing. The city was drizzly and dirty and looked cold. The relay bugs aren't going to do well in this weather, I realized. Of course, Taylor was smart. She'd probably fan them out and have them latch under trees or ledges of buildings. Hopefully the native insects would do better, but this was late October, not exactly the best part of the year for bugs. Then again, bugs aren't how you fight Endbringers. I looked at the literal army of zerg around us. Those are how you fight Endbringers.


    ConfusionWorry. "They haven't even started the sirens," Taylor muttered. "I don't know Chinese, but there's no panic at all. These people have no idea what's coming."


    "Maybe the C.U.I. didn't believe us?" Missy suggested.


    "No, the Yangban are out in force," she told us. "Ten full divisions. Two hundred and fifty parahumans grouped twenty five at a time. Near the edges of the city. They seem to be practicing drills. There's also several thousand normal soldiers. There's not enough bugs for me to get a thorough count. They seem to be setting up barricades of some sort, but again I can't be certain."


    "Barricades? Against Behemoth?" Lily this time. "Are they on drugs?"


    "Tinker tech," Emma spoke up. "I'm running the scans now. It's gonna take a while, this stuff is like Dragon's work. Or mine, even. A hybrid of multiple Tinker disciplines. It's really elegant, can't wait to see how it works. I do recognize what I think are forcefield components, but like nothing I've ever seen before. Please tell me there's a chance we can steal some of this tech in the confusion? Dragon will want to have our babies if we get her some of this stuff. Fuck, I'll have your babies to get my teeth into this."


    ConcernCuriousity. "If there's a way to get away with it without violating the Endbringer Truce or starting an international incident? I'll consider it."


    "Woo! Bonus mission objective!" Vicky declared. "I'll scout the perimeter and look for weak points. Beats all this 'hurry up and wait' bullshit."


    I need to talk to her about playing too many of Zach's games, I thought. "Go for it," I told her. "But our priority is Behemoth."


    "Understood," she saluted us in a mockery of military discipline. "Hey, Khepri, mind lending me a couple of the ghost cats? I'm pretty sure we'll need them for this."


    "Okay," my partner agreed. Her undercurrents led me to believe that if we had a good shot, she'd okay the mission. We aren't even officially our own nation yet, and we're already committing international espionage.


    It was another ten minutes of waiting before Behemoth arrived. A small skyscraper collapsing into the street below heralded the first and most deadly Endbringer. It was hard to place a value on which of the three was ultimately most devastating. They all had their place. Simurgh was, to quote something Zach had said, the 'mind killer', using paranoia and psychological weapons to incredible effect. Leviathan was the city killer, destroying our homes and our security. Behemoth was the hero killer. The one that took our best hopes for the future away from us.


    The monster's head peaked out of the rubble, and the people which had moments before been gawking at the collapsing building turned and fled. They should be in shelters, I couldn't help but think. Behemoth opening attack was a roar that thankfully stayed silent from our side of the dimensional shell. Glass exploded even where we were positioned, over a mile away. People dropped in agony around us, their screams as visible and as silent as Behemoth's.


    Those nearest the monster. I had to turn away. Skulls had shattered just as thoroughly as the glass, leaving gore and mess in the street. It was all I could do to not be sick within my suit. There were cries on our side, shrieks of horror and disgust. Taylor tried to offer me some comfort through our link, but she was too upset. The best she could maintain was anger and determination. I latched onto that, and returned it in kind. A feeling turned idea turned oath. No matter what the future consequences might be, we would not let Behemoth leave this city alive.


    A lance of unidentifiable energy struck Behemoth from the side. His skin went from reddish brown to a neon green color, and then shattered into some kind of crystalline dust.


    "Looks like a variant of Bakuda's glass," Riley informed us impassively. Of course she'd be one of the ones who could watch this without looking away. "It won't work. EB tissue is too dense, at most it could influence three layers deep. Superficial. Cosmetic damage."


    "Anything that doesn't damage the core is cosmetic," Lisa replied. She, at least, sounded tense and nervous. "I didn't have a good position to see it with Leviathan, and by the time we were really hurting the Simurgh, I had already shunted out. But I'm getting the idea now. Victoria, what are you seeing?"


    "A whole lotta nothin'," she answered. "I can anticipate his attacks, sort of."


    Three bolts of lightning streaked toward three different Yangban divisions. They were almost annihilated. Moments later, they had reformed as if nothing happened. They have a variant of Zach's power?


    "Dude, they're ripping me off!" Zach exclaimed.


    "No, it's a form of time manipulation," Lisa replied. "A several second step backward in time, undoing Behemoth's damage. You were saying, Victoria?"


    "Those three bolts could have been three hundred, maybe three thousand," she answered. "I'm sensing every possible attack he can make. This is like watching Bruce Lee fight a room full of toddlers, and letting the toddlers think they stand a chance of winning. If Behemoth wanted, this city would already be gone."


    RealizationFearFocusDetermination. "Nothing we didn't already know," Taylor replied, her voice calm and commanding. "We know the Endbringers are far more powerful than they pretend to be. We also know we can kill them. If they want to hold back, then so be it, that just makes our jobs easier."


    Meanwhile, Behemoth and the Yangban traded blows while the city around them suffered the consequences. At some point, they started switching attacks and combining energy types. Seems we weren't the only ones with cryo blasts, and somewhere they found a cape that could summon serpent like forms made of water. The Yangban's power sharing and amplification techniques meant they could literally flood a city block with the things, forcing Behemoth to boil away the mass even as more came to replace it and the ice power made it all the more difficult to burn through. It was an effective tactic in keeping the monster's attacks from reaching them.


    Behemoth unleashed its roar again, shattering the water, the buildings, and countless people.


    "One minute and six point six seconds between roars," Lisa replied. "This one's following the rule of threes as well, if a slightly more sinister variant."


    "It doesn't have to," Victoria answered. "It could keep that attack going constantly for days if it wanted to."


    "Part of the human controller's bias," Lisa answered. "Remember, we're still recording this data for Rapture and Dragon to chew over for patterns and psychological profiling of the Endmakers. Anything you can contribute will only help."


    The Yangban switched to another tactic, turning the street around Behmoth into some kind of liquid substance. The matter then warped and moved, wrapping itself around the creature and pinning its arms and legs together. He fell and was immediately fired upon by dozens of energy attacks. Many, but not even close to most, were deflected away by his dynakenetic powers.


    "They think they're winning," Vicky informed us.


    "By the Endbringer's programming, I think they are winning," Lisa answered. "They follow a script. It's like a video game. The game programmer could easily create a game that instantly kills you in the first four seconds, but where's the fun in that?"


    "These fights are suppose to be fun?" Zach asked. "Is Tarn Adams a suspect?" He stopped for a second. "...aaand I'm the only one who gets the joke."


    "Oh fuck," Lisa muttered. "He's right. Or my power thinks he's right. The video game analogy might be more apt than I thought. It's possible the Endbringer battles are someone's idea of a game. Like gladiatorial combat on a mass scale."


    ================

    A/N- Losing is Fun!

    ... Honestly, after you get familiar with the interface, Dwarf Fortress is pretty easy. I quit playing after it became clear that FPS drain would kill all my fortresses.
     
    Last edited: Feb 1, 2015
  4. Threadmarks: Amelia, Ch 217
    TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2015
    Messages:
    24,348
    Likes Received:
    260,014
    Amelia, Ch 217


    ReluctantAdmiration. "They're actually very good," Taylor admitted. It was true, we'd been watching the dance between Behemoth and the Yangban for nearly half an hour. One thing that surprised me was there were no losses. Well, there were many losses, Behemoth was doing an excellent job of burning through Yangban groups, only for them to recreate themselves moments later. They focused heavily on mobility and ranged assaults, having a hugely versatile array of tools to escape Behemoth's close range options. And, of course, all the civilians.


    "We can take them," Victoria replied dismissively. "They have to call each attack. It slows them down, makes them predictable. The restoration power creates confusion in their ranks as the troops have to adjust to the changed perspective. They also have pretty much no thinker powers in the mess, so they're vulnerable to stealth attackers."


    "They probably have other groups with those powers," Lisa informed. "Strangers, too. No sense in deploying powers that won't work on Endbringers in the first place. The C.U.I. knows what it's fighting. In as much as anyone without our intel could know."


    HorrorDisgustAnger. "They're shooting the civilians!" Taylor exclaimed.


    Reflexively we turned toward the nearest barricade. The dimensional display tech reacted and dimmed the area around us and highlighted the more distant location. It pays to have so many talented tinkers on the team. Taylor was right, of course. The civilians had been retreating toward the barricades, trying to find anywhere to escape Behemoth. Now they were running from the barrier as dozens were mowed down by automatic weapons fire.


    The ground beneath me shuddered, at it took a second to realize it was me causing it. The Yggdrasil trying to reach up and block the bullets. An impossibility, of course, from this side of the barricade.


    "What do we do?" Sabah asked, her voice small.


    I froze. This wasn't something I knew how to handle. These weren't just some gang. This was the single most populous nation on the planet, and if we jumped in we would be sparking an international war. One that we might very well lose to sheer numbers.


    "We can't help them," Taylor spoke. "If we do in the middle of a Behemoth fight... it doesn't matter our reasons. We lose our allies. Almost all of them. If the Yangban tries to fight us instead of fighting Behemoth, it'll cost more lives in the long run than doing nothing."


    "Fuck!" Vicky exclaimed. "Promise me that after we're done with the Endbringers and fucking Scion, we come back to these fuckers. We can't let them get away with this." She punched one of the shadowcats hard enough to knock the three ton SEB armored creature on its side. It climbed to its feet without even a noise of objection.


    "Yes," I agreed. "We'll make our stance known, take this footage to the international community and let them figure out what to do with it. When we start the portal system, we're leaving them out. I refuse to give people like them a world to exploit." DoubtConcern. Taylor was right, I was bluffing about giving this to the world as a whole. Doing so would prove we could spy across dimensions. This was something that Dragon was okay to know about, and it was something we couldn't hide from Cauldron if we tried, so we pretended we trusted them enough to just tell them, but this was functionally the perfect Stranger tech. Unless they invented something that could beat it. Better that they didn't even know to try.


    "Is it wrong that I'm suddenly cheering for the Endbringer?" Eric asked. "Like we should just go home and let the Endbringers go after China as much as they like? Because right now, I'm hoping they drop right into the capital and have the time of their lives stomping on a royal family or two."


    CruelAnger. None of us said anything, but judging by the quiet responses, I couldn't help but feel most of us agreed with him on this, at least on some level. Certainly none of us felt the need to voice a disagreement.


    Meanwhile, Behemoth decided he'd had enough punishment and it was time fight back again. Wrenching himself free of the liquefied earth with a massive leap, he traveled far more rapidly than I would have expected something that size to be able, and slamming into a group of Yangban, quite literally. Caught within the kill aura, they somehow managed to avoid bursting into flame. A defensive power of some sort, I would assume. Whatever it was, it wasn't a match for the incredible strength of the Endbringer, which crushed them without difficulty. That Yangban division was killed permanently.


    A stream of exotic energies cut into Behemoth, leaving further gouges in the mostly restored flesh. That's why he stayed so long in the gunk, I realized. It let him regenerate from the damage they'd inflicted, however meaningless that damage may actually be.


    "It has to obey the rules," Lisa observed. "If enough damage is inflicted it retreats because it's suppose to, not because it has to, but it's also allowed to buy time and recover. It's a psychological mechanism to punish hesitation and nonlethal attack styles. Encouraging conflicts to be as destructive and aggressive as possible."


    "Sounds like everything we've learned about Passengers thus far," Clarice added. "They compel their hosts toward this."


    "Untrue," Lisa replied. "Yes, they compel hosts toward conflict, but not toward this kind of mindless slaughter. They want evolution, and killing hosts in large numbers limits that. Small numbers of death are fine, of course, but there's a certain point where it becomes a problem. It's why Nilbog stopped with his city instead of overwhelming half the country. Why Jack Slash refused to let his people cross certain thresholds. The Passengers want a cold war. The Unspoken Rules, or something similar to them, are a psychological compulsion. Endbringers are the antithesis to that goal."


    "It suggests a host like me," I spoke. "One with a Third Trigger." RealizationFearConcernSupport. I felt Taylor's hand on my shoulder. Or, more appropriately, her suit's interaction with mine. It wasn't quite the same comfort, but it was nice.


    "Putting special notes in describing Third Triggers," Lisa replied. "We're drifting dangerously close to the Taboo, here. This could limit our results."


    Behemoth leapt again, and then promptly stalled in mid air. He was locked there as the Yangban took the opportunity to fire every attack they had at the trapped Endbringer, which roared and launched streams of lightning at his opponents.


    The attacks took their usual toll, shattering already damaged buildings and reducing Yangban divisions in number, only for them to suddenly be restored. It was certainly an incredible power, significantly stronger than the Adepts' leadership.


    The lightning around Behemoth stopped tracking toward enemies and turned inward, bouncing along his skin and the scars inflicted by the battle. The monster's skin started to glow white hot with power.


    "Oh, fuck," Lisa muttered. "I think they've finally managed to piss him off. This is a new attack."


    The Yangbang switched back to the water snakes, putting a huge amount of water around Behemoth. Thirty seconds had provided a quarter mile thick shell of water. Then he unleashed all that power, flash boiling the water and drowning much of the area in superheated steam. It poured forth and scoured Yangban and civilians alike, leaving them with horrific burns. The time manipulation was invoked again. Was there a limit to that power? I wondered.


    "I don't understand," Lisa replied. "He should be withdrawing now. They've done more damage than he's experienced in his last three fights combined, and forced him to use a new power. What's he staying around for?"


    "Uh... looks like they're starting up that barricade," Emma spoke. "I... have absolutely no idea what I'm looking at."


    We looked around us, viewing the polyhedron dome that suddenly formed over the city. It was mostly clear. Behemoth roared again and sent lightning into the shielding. It turned nearly black in the panels that had been struck, then the color faded, leaving the entire dome slightly darker, but uniformed in shade.


    "Okay, still don't know what I'm seeing," Emma muttered. "It's diffusing the energy through the field and into the area inside."


    "I just lost my bugs," Taylor informed us. "I can't sense them in that dimension."


    "The tunnel collapsed," Trevor responded. "I don't know why. Probably something to do with that shield."


    Behemoth dropped and rushed the nearest part of the barricade, which was still well over three miles away from him, ignoring everything the Yangbang threw at him. It took him under a minute to arrive, colliding with the shield. Amazingly, it held. And the shield dimmed enough that the city was plunged into instant night.


    "Holy fuck!" Emma exclaimed. "I know what it's doing! I think. It's using the energy directed against it to create a localized spatial anomaly. A naked singularity." She paused for a couple seconds as she realized that most of us didn't know what that meant.


    "Umm... it's randomly warping the laws of physics inside it. There's no possible way to predict or control it, but the more power that field absorbs, the stranger things are going to get in there. And I mean that in a 'one plus one equals tapioca pudding' type physics breaking."


    "Is that even possible?" Lily asked.


    "Normally? No," she answered. "In there? Probably not, but things equally impossible are going to happen, one way or another."


    "They're trying to kill him by changing reality enough that whatever allows him to function simply stops functioning," Lisa replied. "They're trying to make it so he cannot exist anymore." ConfusionTrepidationHope.


    Behemoth attacked again, and our visual vanished. We still had displays from further away, but everything inside the dome was no longer visible. We no longer knew what was happening on the other side.


    ==============

    A/N- Ah, if only the cycle hadn't broken. That's the kind of thing that might let the Entities overcome the entropy problem. But Eden had to faceplant into a planet. Dumbass.
     
    Last edited: Feb 1, 2015
  5. Threadmarks: Fan Art: Emma
    Flukes

    Flukes Getting some practice in, huh?

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2015
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    132
    So I've been reading this for a while.

    And my mental image of Case 53 Emma was really cool, especially at her first appearance with all the ice and whatnot.

    My drawn image wasn't anywhere as cool, but might as well post it up.

    Achievement unlocked: FANART!

    [​IMG]

    .... this should be a PNG. Weird. Oh well.
     
    N0Way, Snow908, GFFerrari and 34 others like this.
  6. Threadmarks: Amelia, Ch 218
    TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2015
    Messages:
    24,348
    Likes Received:
    260,014
    Amelia, Ch 218


    "That can't possibly work," Zach muttered. "Can it?"


    "Not a chance in hell," Lisa replied. "The Endbringers already can't exist by the natural laws of our reality. What they're doing's going to put one hell of a dent in the fucker. Probably. Even that's questionable. But only attacks that can hurt the core will actually kill an Endbringer."


    "Can we break the field?" I asked. "Maybe save the people caught inside? Their lives are being thrown away for nothing."


    "No," Emma answered. "Opening the containment now would let the exotic effects pour out into the rest of the world. The results could easily be worse than New Delhi. It might even make our whole world uninhabitable." HorrorDismay.


    "And they're using this on their own people," Taylor growled. "When that weapon shuts down, we're taking at least some of those barricades. The whole fucking thing if at all possible. We need to know how that tech works. This is a whole new kind of WMD. It might even be a way to attack Scion directly. If nothing else, if we have it that means they don't."


    "And the possibility of an international incident?" Lisa asked.


    "Fuck to that," I said, adding my support to Taylor. "They just unleashed that... that! On their own people. No one's going to blame us for doing what we must to stop it from happening again."


    "Right. Just making sure," Lisa replied. "Any objections to Operation: World War Three?"


    "Umm... if I may?" Trevor spoke up. "If you're willing to cannibalize some of our equipment, we might be able to do this without them being able to prove we were ever here in the first place."


    That would be nice. "I'm listening," Taylor spoke for us.


    ....


    The shield was still up, or at least we were unable to scan into its location and Behemoth had not left the containment, almost an hour later. We finished our project within that time. Over two hundred of our zerglings were cut open to remove the shunting components, but we finished our new device. A nearly sixty mile long tube of modified Yggdrasil. Crystal and Vicky were busy pumping it with as much power as they could, and I was adding the amount of power I could by drawing off the normal Yggdrasil mass. We were ready.


    "The power signatures are fading," Emma informed us. "Exotic physics effects are being detected. Either it's shutting down, or it's about to rupture. No way to know until we see it happen."


    The shields didn't shatter so much as they evaporated, leaving behind a desert of twisted shapes existing without rhyme or reason. Several large slabs of matter had fallen into the blue sand that was all that existed of the soil. Crystals and metals were strewn about. Strange and colorful corals extended out of the sand, and birdlike creatures started falling from the sky and shattering into goo. A goo which struggled to move before breaking down into mist.


    "Life?" I asked. "That field created living things?"


    "It makes as much sense as anything else," Emma replied. "The laws of reality changed, but they didn't stop existing entirely. They're dying because whatever chemical properties allowed them to exist in the first place no longer apply. As lethal to them as the weapon itself was to the people caught within."


    One of the crystal forms shifted and shattered. Beneath was Behemoth. He was reduced to a skeleton. Or, skeleton might be the wrong word. Perhaps more like an artist drawing the proportion lines before getting to the rest of the drawing. Litte more than stick figure with extra details. If anything, somehow, he looked even more terrifying this way than he did with his flesh intact.


    "Now!" Victoria shouted, and the ring of plant material shunted over. Taylor had six and a half seconds for the matter to completely encase the ring of barricades and shunt back. Any longer, and its cloaking effect would fail. She did it in five and a quarter. The massive wall of rings took their geosynchronous place in our dimension. Could the theft be attributed to us? I asked myself. Maybe. Our teleportation equipment was already pretty well known, but only a few knew we were using an alternate earth as a planet sized staging platform and at-will base of operations. Either way, they certainly couldn't prove anything.


    Behemoth charged the line not far from where he was trapped, smashing into the soldiers who had, not long ago, murdered innocent people who were simply trying to flee. The Yangban moved quickly, opening up with similar tactics as before. This time, the eldest of the Endbringers was done playing games. Now he fired at three divisions instead of one at a time. Now when he shot, he got the whole group. In three seconds, seventy five Yangban and hundreds of soldiers died.


    "They broke its program," Lisa spoke in horror. "They follow a mantra of hitting harder than they are hit, and that was one hell of a hit. It's not going to retreat. It's not going to hold back. If we were to try to kill Behemoth now, it's just going to result in a slaughter. It's going to keep killing until it feels it's achieved enough of a body count to match was just happened."


    "That could take hours," I replied.


    "It will take days," Lisa corrected. "Well, Eric, you get your wish. I don't think China will survive this."


    "Is there anything we can do?" I asked. Fuck, didn't we just basically say we wanted this?


    "Unless Chariot has a way to evacuate entire cities?" she responded. "No, there's really not."


    Behemoth's next attack was a new one. He smashed the stub that was once his fist into the ground and it rippled outward, a shockwave in the earth. Where people were standing, there was no warning. They didn't fall or scream or even see their deaths coming. They simply exploded into gore.


    "He's still holding back," Lisa continued her analysis. "Less than before, but that was nothing but theatrics. Taking time to telegraph his attacks unnecessarily. He could easily do that without the stomp."


    Behemoth moved into the part of the city which hadn't been functionally removed from the face of the planet. His kill aura no longer simply killed people, it caused the glass of the buildings to melt.


    "Radiaton output is off the charts," Emma informed us. "Much higher and your insides would simply liquify. As it stands, lethal exposure would occur in minutes. If you survive everything else for that long, at least. I think he's trying to lure the defenders into following his trail and killing themselves."


    "Would the Zerg do anything to help?" Taylor asked. "Slow him down at least?"


    "No," Lisa responded. "He'd just burrow underground to avoid them and start killing from beneath the earth. Fighting us in person is... more like a polite formality than anything. He certainly doesn't need to do it."


    "So what do we do?" Vicky asked. "Let him go on his killing spree across China until he gets bored and takes a nap? Then kill him after he's calmed down a little?"


    "That's exactly what we have to do," Lisa responded. "There are no other possibilities."


    The visual display flickered again, and then fuzzed into near nothing. "What happened? Another reality weapon?" Taylor asked.


    "Close," Trevor answered. "According to Dragon's tech, her satellites have gone dark as well. It's Scion. He's finally showed up."


    "I hate to say this," I spoke up. "But that's good, in a twisted sort of way. The fuckers run from Scion, right? He'll go back into hibernation before killing most of China. Hell, maybe he won't run. Maybe he'll fight back and at least do some damage to Scion."


    "We'll have to find out later," Lisa replied. "Whatever else happens, there's nothing more we can do here. Pack it up, head home, and hope like hell he didn't see us watching the battle from this side. The idea of him knowing where to find our dimension worries me.


    ===========

    A/N- And, sometimes, no matter how far off the rails you go, you intersect canon.
     
    Last edited: Feb 1, 2015
  7. Threadmarks: Amelia, Ch 219
    TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2015
    Messages:
    24,348
    Likes Received:
    260,014
    Amelia, Ch 219


    Thankfully, China's city killer weapon was designed to be transportable by convoy truck. Ultralisks were more than capable of doing the lifting needed, and with Missy there to do the work, it only took us a fairly short amount of time to put the devices in our storage location. Our Tinkers were quite excited to work with the devices, of course. Or, at least, Emma and Trevor were. At the very least, they were going to talk with Dragon about tech trading. Not really Riley or Rey's specialty. I, meanwhile, was simply in shock. We watched them murder a city.


    "Why'd they do it?" I asked as we finally got into our home. I could have asked sooner, but somehow I had to wait until we were inside a familiar setting. Lisa just looked away. She had an answer, she just didn't want to say it.


    "Reputation," Eric volunteered. "My father's like that, too. If someone outstaged him, he had to find a way to outstage them right back. You can't run a gang without being the scariest fucker on the block."


    "Sounds about right," Theo nodded. "It's about power and image. We killed an Endbringer. They had to kill one or they would look weaker than us."


    "They are weaker than us," Victoria replied. "When we kill Endbringers, they actually die. Behemoth lived through their attack."


    "They got what they wanted," Lisa informed us. "Behemoth was destroyed."


    "Not by them," Vicky retorted.


    "The story they tell is quite different," she sighed, holding up her smartphone. "Heroic sacrifice, yadda yadda, shield yadda yadda, prevented Behemoth from destroying China the way the Simurgh did India, more yadda yadda. Victory for the CUI, and proof of the Mandate of Heaven, or whatever bullshit propoganda they're using this week. Doesn't matter what the truth is, they only have to fool their own people. Imperial China has won its internal PR war." DisgustHate.


    "By killing millions of their own?" I voiced the outrage all of us were feeling. "They didn't even let the ones who could escape get out. They were gunning them down like they were already dead."


    "I wish I could say it was even something so callous as removing witnesses," Lisa replied. "This was... fuck, I guess it's analogy time. Did you know grenades aren't designed to kill people?"


    "No," I admitted.


    "I do, ma'am," Theo simply closed his eyes and put an arm around a very upset looking Missy. "We can leave, if you want," he offered her.


    "No, I need to hear this," she answered. "I want to know why."


    "I know it sounds counter intuitive," Lisa continued. "Until you start thinking economics." DreadDisgust. "A dead soldier costs the enemy a patch of dirt and a gravestone. A wounded soldier costs hospital beds, doctors, food and money. It's functionally the same thing here. A good chunk of the city was destroyed, along with all its residents. Now they'll build a monument to all the dead in its place. If the people had escaped, there'd be refugee camps and aiding the homeless. Or, maybe they wouldn't, and they'd just tell the refugees to suck it up. But that would still be disruptive and remind their people that this so called victory of theirs had victims instead of heroic sacrifices. Easier just to let everyone pretend this is a happy occasion."


    "That's beyond fucked up," Zach replied. "Can they really do that?"


    "Already did," Lisa answered. "In the time it's taken us to get home, their royal family has already declared it a national holiday. Something which, I remind you, no one did after the Simurgh's death. We mourned the lives lost in India as one of the greatest tragedies in human history. China celebrates its dead as heroes, and brags that its forward thinking prevented the damage from being worse. Welcome to propaganda."


    "Fuck," I cursed.


    "It's not all bad," Lisa replied. "Thanks to this being such a 'great victory', it means they have to stay silent about anything that disproves that claim. They're not going to say anything about the stolen tinker tech. At least as long as we don't say anything about their little mass murder spree, they won't be able to officially complain about us walking away with their doomsday weapon."


    "So, basically, we're looking at the glass as half full," Zach replied. He waited a beat. "While ignoring the part where the liquid inside is cat piss concentrate. Know what? Fuck it. I'm done. If you need me, I'm going to be online finding a shooter game that involves mowing my way through a Chinese army. Killing Nazi zombies just isn't going to cut it for me anymore."


    "Aww," Riley whined. "I worked so hard on that Christmas surprise, too." AnxiousHorror. We all went silent and looked toward the girl. Every last one of us. She looked at our expressions. "What?" she asked.


    "Don't worry," Lisa cut in. "She was just telling a joke." The rest of us breathed a collective sigh of relief.


    ....


    "No, dad, we didn't even do anything," Taylor spoke into the phone. "We geared up before finding out he was going after China. They refused to let us help. Sat around and waited to see if they'd change their minds. Not much we could do without starting World War Three. No, they don't. Scion did it. I think he always could. I don't know why he didn't. Hard to figure out a guy who doesn't speak and spends as much time rescuing kittens from trees as he does stopping volcanoes. Sorry our dinner went to waste." MisgivingReluctantHappy. "Oh, well that's good. I'm just going to stay here tonight, I thought you wouldn't mind. Sounds good. Love you too."


    She sighed after hanging up the phone. "How is it that I lie to my dad more now than before he knew I was a cape?" She sat down on 'her side' of the bed.


    "Welcome to international politics, I guess," I turned and crawled up behind her.


    "Know what sucks the most?" she muttered as I brushed her rather abundant hair off to the side. "This feels like something Piggot would do. Like we're leaving the victims to suffer because the abuser's more useful to us than they are."


    "We're not," I insisted. Taylor let out a light moan as I pressed the balls of my thumbs into her back. "It's more like a hostage situation. If we go in now, it's going to hurt a lot of innocent people. Unacceptable amounts of them. China still has almost a billion people in it, and they'll all suffer if we attack the CUI."


    "And we have 'more important' monsters to go after," Taylor sighed. "Scion takes priority. Fucking moral arithmetic."


    "Even you can't be everywhere and do everything," I offered.


    "I probably cou-," she gasped as I sent a pulse of my power through her body, lightly stimulating her entire nervous system. "That's cheating," she finally managed to form words. "That is so not fair."


    "Hey, you're the one who used her doppleganger," I pointed out. "You don't get to complain when I use my powers." I pressed my elbow against a spot on her lower back that my power kindly informed me was a prime location. I smiled as she moaned softly.


    "I didn't hear you complaining," she replied, pushing her back against me in a way vaguely reminiscent of a cat. For the briefest second, that caused me to freeze up. Her body was so absurdly strong and flawless, reminding me that she was the copy, not the original. I crushed that thought immediately. She's still Taylor.


    "I don't hear you complaining either," I countered, hitting her with another pulse that caused her to slump back against me.


    "Why would I?" she asked happily. "Oh, by the way, your Aunt Sarah says hi."


    "When did you ta-" I hesitated for a second. "Oh. You mean?"


    "Yup," Taylor answered. "They apparently decided that it would be wrong to let dinner be wasted. And then she stayed over."


    "Eww," I responded.


    "I know," she agreed, still leaning up against me. I allowed myself a look down her shirt when she did. AmusedPleasedConfident. "So I'm staying here tonight."


    "I should charge you rent," I teased.


    "You still owe for that house I got you," she argued.


    "Okay," I agreed. "So we're even. Are you feeling better?"


    "A little," she replied.


    "Good," I scooted a bit away from her and rolled face down over on my side. "My turn."


    =======================

    A/N- mood whiplash! I never tire of it.
     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2015
  8. Threadmarks: Amelia, Ch 220
    TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2015
    Messages:
    24,348
    Likes Received:
    260,014
    Amelia, Ch 220


    "Hey, Ames," Vicky spoke as she walked into my brand new office. Yes, I have an office now, instead of just remodeling my bedroom. Once upon a time, that bedroom had been an office that I just created a bed in when I chose not to go home to sleep. At this point, it had been months since I even set foot in that house. Time to give up and simply admit I live at my job. "Your birthday's in May. So why are you celebrating it in the middle of November? Are you in that big a hurry to turn eighteen? Because we can have a perfectly ordinary party, if you're bored."


    I hesitated for a moment. She's not going to like this one, I thought to myself. Sorry, Vicky, but I promised myself this when I took my birth name. "It's my real birthday," I told her. "Or my real birth month, at least. Apparently finding out who my birth mother was still isn't an option. And it's looking more and more like my father renamed me after getting me, so nuts to having an identifiable birth certificate."


    "And what's wrong with you being Amy Dallon?" Vicky argued, staring me down. "I get that you were pissed at mom. I even get why. But this is like you're saying you don't want to be my sister."


    Ouch. "That's not..." I sighed. "That's not what it's about. It's about being me, instead of what other people try to force me to be. I stopped pretending to be Amy Dallon because I wasn't happy. I've found who I am now, who I want to be."


    "So you don't want to be my sister," she pressed.


    "No!" I repled. "I do. I just... honestly, I want to be your sister now more than I did... before." I looked away.


    "Oh, right," she muttered. "I kinda try not to think about that."


    I cringed. "I spent the last three and a half years of my life trying not to think about it." At least it's comforting how I don't really find her attractive anymore. Lisa said it was because her aura warped my memory of her. What she really looks like is really very different than what my mind saw. Rose colored glasses, superpowers edition. "You can understand why I'd like to put that part of my life behind me."


    "So you'd rather be Marquis' daughter than Mom's?" she asked.


    "If you asked me that a few months ago, I would have said 'fuck yes'," I told her. "Now? Yes, as a matter of fact, I think I would have. I still have some memories of what my life was like. Before. They're happy memories. Whatever Marquis might have been, he was a caring father. I'd like to think that, maybe, we'd have a relationship a little like Taylor and her dad. Fuck, even now Danny treats me more like a daughter than either of them did for the whole ten years of my life I spent with them."


    "Except the part where he was a supervillain," she argued. "Probably would have turned out more like Eric or Theo and their fathers. Is that the kind of parental relationship you'd rather have?"


    "Maybe," I shrugged. "But at least there's a chance. Maybe he would have cared about me. Maybe I wouldn't have been treated like a ticking time bomb or completely ignored or... everything else. You can't blame me for choosing 'maybe okay' over 'guaranteed suck', can you?"


    "Was it really all bad?" she asked. I almost backed out then. SupportLove. I drew on my link with Taylor. This was a long time coming, and I'm not going to chicken out of it yet again just to spare Vicky's feelings.


    "Other than you?" I replied. "It really kinda was. Sure, it was all first world problems. I wasn't starved or sold into slavery or beaten or molested, so there are plenty of people who've lived through a lot fucking worse. But I was raised to by a father who couldn't love me and a mother that didn't even pretend not to hate me. Parents I desperately tried to earn some kind of approval from for years and at best got indifference. Yeah, I know they're both trying to make up for it now, and I'm even trying to let them. You should thank Taylor for that, by the way, because she's the only reason I didn't tell Mom to get fucked by Behemoth."


    "I... that mindlink between the two of you?" she asked. "You're using it right now, aren't you?"


    "Yes," I admitted.


    "Is that healthy?" she asked.


    I paused for a second, thinking back to what I was like before the link. What Taylor was like. What we were like when we went without it. What happened to Taylor, especially. ConcernInsecurityLoss. I focused back on the link. Don't worry, Taylor, never again. She probably got something closer to comfort and certainty. It was still hard for us to communicate more than the simplest ideas through the link.


    "Is it healthy for Eric to be Eric instead of Arianna?" I asked. It may have been a deflection, but it was an analogy I could work with as well. "I'm sure there are people out there with really good arguments why it's not. And ones with equally good arguments why it is. He's happy how he is, and he'd be miserable if I, for whatever reason, decided that what he was asking for was wrong. He gets to live the life he wants, now. So do Taylor and I." AgreementCertaintyLove.


    "Well, aside the Endbringers and Despotisms and Space Whales," I added. "But we're kinda stuck with those."


    She stood there, chewing over my answer. Or, more likely, trying to find an argument against it. "I kinda hate how much smarter you are than me, sometimes," she finally answered. "This philosophy shit isn't my thing, so I can't really say anything without looking stupid or like a complete bitch."


    "Yeah, well, Lisa's tried her best to talk us out of it, too," I smirked. "She finally gave up." After Taylor's death and her own Second Trigger. "If it makes you feel any better, we don't leave the link on constantly. It basically turns off when one of us falls asleep. We also have cutoffs that we can can use to deactivate it temporarily. Like when we're going to the bathroom. We don't have a lot of privacy between us, but there are limits."


    "Yeah, I get the idea," Vicky scrunched her face in what I had to assume was exaggerated disgust. "So... yeah... you'd rather be Amelia."


    "That doesn't mean I don't want you to be my sister!" I exclaimed. "You have to believe that."


    "I know. Lie detector, remember?" she tapped the side of your head. "Sure, your link messes with the emotion part of the bioscan some, but I'm pretty sure you can't actually get a lie through."


    "Umm, I've always kinda wondered, what does that look like?" I started. "You know... Taylia... how our emotions look to an outsider. Call it my birthday present."


    "Well, okay," she sighed. "The first thing is that the two of you don't get angry. Or, not as angry as you should. Whenever anything really starts to get to you, it's quickly replaced by a sort of... intensity... kinda like when my power starts running and telling me what to do to kill something."


    "That one's mostly Taylor," I replied. "She's really big on taking action when something looks bad. Kinda like you, honestly. Whenever you get mad, you turn it toward something productive. Like punching Nazis." I wonder if that's part of why I was attracted to her in the first place. That and the legs. Oh, yes, the legs.


    "Well, I do love punching me some Nazis," she agreed with a smile. "You also never stay sad for very long. Like, at all. I get the feeling that if I stormed out of here in anger and swore never to talk to you again, you'd be over it in, like, a day or two. And that might be my ego refusing to let me admit you could get over it sooner."


    "You're my sister and I love you." I insisted. " I couldn't just forget about you like that. We put so much time and effort into saving you in the first place."


    "Believe me, I'm glad you did," she replied. "But it's... fuck, after Behemoth was destroyed, you and Taylor retreated to your bedroom and by morning you were fine. Not even pretending to be fine. You were both honestly over the whole thing."


    "We're not over it," I insisted. DisgustDetermination. "We're still going to make them pay for what they've done."


    "I know," she replied. "But then look at everyone else. Missy spent some time crying on Theo's shoulder. Lily and Sabah went straight to one of their bedrooms, and I'm pretty sure they skipped their usual nightly routine of wild sex followed by one or the other stumbling back to their apartment next door because for whatever reason they refuse to actually move in together." Yeah, I still wasn't sure what the story was with that, myself.

    Victoria continued running down her list. "Zach and Emma both got themselves banned from PHO. Granted, that happens like once every other week anyway, but they really went all out this time. Eric decided to go after the punching bag until his hands bled."


    I remembered that, of course. "He said he just needed to work out some frustration and went overboard," I told her.


    "Yeah, doesn't surprise me, he's really hung up on that whole 'real men don't show weakness' shit," she replied. "And I got to lay in bed all night cuddling Riley while she whimpered in her sleep. And the next three nights I spent sparring with Zach and Emma and Crystal and Eric while Riley stayed with you. The only person who didn't seem bothered by all this is Lisa. I'm pretty sure she's decided there's exactly one person on this planet that she actually cares about, and it's not the eight or nine million Chinese who died."


    ConcernSurprise. "Wow... I didn't realize... are we really that oblivious?"


    "Kinda," Vicky answered. "You two get so caught up in the grand mission and each other that there's not a lot of space in those noggins of yours to notice everything else going on around you." RealizationWorryFailure.


    "Pot calling the kettle black here, sis," I retorted.


    "Hey, I'd be doing the same thing if I could," she argued. "But there aren't any more Nazis left to punch, and there aren't any heterosexual life partners for me to cuddle with in our underwear. Don't say Lisa, because there's literally no one worse."


    "What? You prefer Riley?" I teased.


    "Okay, I was wrong."


    ==============

    A/N- Yeah, I know the formatting got borked in the last bit. Fixed now.
     
  9. Threadmarks: Amelia, Ch 221
    TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2015
    Messages:
    24,348
    Likes Received:
    260,014
    Amelia, Ch 221


    "Surprise!" Riley shouted as I followed Vicky into the main area.


    "Hey, Mushroom," Zach stage whispered. "It's not a surprise party."


    "So what?" she asked. "It's fun."


    "Well, can't argue with that logic," he agreed. "So, what's first? Cake, icecream or presents. Just remember to unwrap Taylor last." AmusementAnnoyance.


    "Don't you mea..." I stopped for a second. "No, of course you don't." Of course, it did invoke a thought or two. PleasedProud.


    "Oww!" Zach exclaimed, looking over at Riley, who had given him a good jab in the sides. She really dug into his rib with that one.


    "No, we gotta talk serious for a minute," I insisted. "I've just found out I suck at considering other peoples' feelings. Like really, really bad."


    "To be fair, most of us do," Vicky responded. "We're allowed to. It's called being a teenager. Pretty much on the front page of the user manual. I can see feelings and I still suck at it most of the time. You can ask anyone."


    "Yeah, took us two hours to get her to understand that some of us actually have to work to keep our figures, and that means we have to eat something other than pizza once in a while."

    "You mean there are things other than pizza that you can eat?" Zach cut in. "What is this strange idea that you speak of?"

    "He acts like he's joking, but he's really quite serious," Emma added. "Takes him half an hour to figure out how to make a sandwhich. Which isn't half as long as I'll make him suffer if he makes the obvious joke." She growled the last few word at him.


    "Yes, mistress," he fake whimpered. "Please don't hurt me again."


    "All joking aside," I insisted. "I mean it. We kinda get caught up in the, well, everything. No need to go over all the shit we have to worry about. I'm trying not to murder the party completely. So, yeah, I was saying. We get distracted by all the huge shit and start to ignore some stuff. Like how sometimes we have to do things that upset some of you. And that's the kind of thing we can't afford to ignore. You're important. Not just because of your powers, but because you're my friends. Except maybe you, Lisa. Depends on how much shit you'll give me for saying that. And Rey... maybe I should worry about him some more, too?"


    "Don't worry on either account," Lisa replied. "It's your birthday, you're entitled to exactly one soppy speech without me using it against you. But only one, everything else will be used against you. As for Rey, I don't think you have to worry. Except maybe that he's having way too much fun at his job, especially with the new Endbringer tissue. I'm more than half expecting to walk in on him hugging the samples and telling them how much daddy loves them."


    AmusementConcern. "I'll... umm... try to keep a better eye on him," Taylor offered.


    "Don't worry about it," Trevor replied. "I think he's finally discovered his real specialty."


    "His specialty is Endbringers?" Zach exclaimed.


    "More like artificial life," he responded. "Yeah, I know, not news. But they confirm his skills aren't just for things that we know of a life. He can work with inorganic things like Endbringer tissue. And probably a number of other things. Doesn't get much more alien than Endbringer. Maybe some of the weirder Case 53s."


    "Okay, so that's him out of the way," I agreed. "Let's get to everyone else. I'm sorry things went so badly in Chongqing."


    "Not your fault," Crystal insisted. "There's no good way to handle that shit. We should just be glad Scion wiped Behemoth before it could go on a complete rampage. At least now we know more about how they think, and what we have to do to kill them. Like making damn sure we do it on the first hit."


    "Thanks," I smiled. "I just want you to know that, as completely dense as I can be, it's not because I don't care. I'm just busy and... fuck, how is it that my life was less complicated when we were planning to overthrow the PRT? There's just so much to worry about now. I just want you to know that if you have any problems, you're free to bring them up with me any time."


    "You heard it here first, folks," Zach announced. "Amelia just gave us all permission to walk in and have a chat with her when she and Taylor are in mid c- Oww god dammt!" Emma and Riley jabbed his ribs, and Vicky zapped him in the face. "I was going to say cuddle time!"


    "Holy shit, he's telling the truth," Vicky informed us.


    "See, told you!" he insisted.


    "But only because you figured someone would interrupt him so you could say that," she added, doing her best 'mom' impersonation.


    "That? You can really tell that?" Zach asked, and Vicky simply nodded. "Okay, that's it, your power is completely unfairly bullshit."


    "Says the guy who even my power can't figure out how to kill," she muttered. "So, is all the heavy shit done? Can we get to the gifts? Or the cake. Or how about gifts made out of cake? One of you can tinker that up, right?"


    "Okay, Vicky, what's your gift?"


    "Crystal and I got this one together," she announced.


    "We may have let Eric help," Crystal added. "Someone needed to carry the bags."


    "It's not like I know what you like," he shrugged. "And they seemed to know what they were doing."


    "We got you your entire winter wardrobe update!" Vicky announced. "The miracles of weird ass thinker powers, I can just envision you in each outfit so you don't even need to be there, they'll all fit perfectly and look awesome."


    "She did the fitting, I did the awesome," Crystal added. "When you pulled her out of stasis, you left her fashion sense behind."


    "Don't look at me," Eric replied. "I have less than zero fashion sense. I'm still wearing the same clothes I did in highschool."


    "Okay, where are they?" I sighed. Damn Vicky and her damn shopping.


    "Your closet," she informed me. "We knew you would just keep using your old clothes, so we replaced everything for you. Now you have no choice but to look good. So give up and deal with it."


    "Thanks," I replied dryly.


    "Emma and I got you one together," Riley smiled, holding out a box. I opened it, and a large parakeet with a gorgeous green coloration hopped out onto my hand. It didn't seem upset to have been in a box. "It' a songbird," Riley informed us. "It's designed to be the perfect singer."


    "It's Yggdrasil based, of course," Emma informed. "About a terrabyte worth of memory storage for plenty of storage space, and it has hundreds of songbird types it can sing, either in imitation of actual birdcalls, or simply singing along to whatever music it's playing."


    Meanwhile the construct had hopped its way up my arm, and was nuzzling my ear. I reached up and rubbed its back, which it seemed to enjoy.


    "Also, it's pretty much made of adorable," Emma finished up.


    "Me next," Zach declared, holding up box that could have held clothes. He handed it over and I nearly dropped it for the weight. I peeled off wrapping paper of some cartoon character I didn't recognize, and looked at the contents.


    "Massage oils?" I asked.


    "Hey, those are the high quality kind," he replied.


    "Okay, this was actually surprisingly thoughtful," I admitted.


    "There's another box in there, too," he added. "Edible massage oils. Y'know, just in case." I simply handed the box over to Taylor. AmusedIndignation. "Okay, you got me," I admitted. "I didn't see that coming."


    Theo gave me a remarkably well sculpted model of a tree. He is getting really good with his powers, I noted.


    Missy's was next. "It's a collection of extra music for your songbird. And instructions on how to use it since tinkers don't know what user documentation is." The bird chirped happily at Missy.


    "I made you a nightgown," Sabah offered hers next. "It's some of the finer spider silk. There are no words for how comfortable that stuff is."


    "More music," Lily shrugged. "Sorry, I don't have one of those cool making things powers. But then I got to thinking about that bird and wondering what it can do. Everyone else kept picking out soft rock, so I got you some good metal, just for variety's sake. Also, it's kind of hilarious watching that little thing go."


    We were down to just Trevor and Lisa, and Lisa simply smiled and waved in his direction. It was a smaller box. A couple long boxes, I realized as I opened the wrapping. "They're a matching pair, for you and Taylor." I opened it and lifted the silver chain. It had a lovely rendition of the globe on it. I found the other was shaped like a scarab beetle, wings open.


    "They're meant to lock together," he informed us. Taylor and I fiddled with it for a little bit before figuring it out, but he was right. The final product had the beetle sitting on the globe and shielding it with the wings.


    "It's beautiful," I replied. I meant it, too. The artist who created this was a genius.


    "And the best for last," Lisa announced, holding up an envelope and handing it over. "Don't worry about all the words. It's really quite simple. The UN's finally agreed to everything. You're holding official recognition. Pantheon is now its own sovereign state, with recognized domain by the majority of our world's nations." SurpriseAwe. "Congrats you two, you can call yourselves the Queens or Empresses or whatever you like of your own planet sized country. And the magic tree house is now, officially, a magic tree Embassy."


    "Holy fuck," I muttered.


    =============

    A/N- Woo, birthdays! And recognizing a bunch of kids as a sovereign power.
     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2015
  10. Threadmarks: Amelia, Ch 222
    TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2015
    Messages:
    24,348
    Likes Received:
    260,014
    Amelia, Ch 222


    "Accord and Dragon have already done the heavy lifting," Lisa replied as we sat down to our first real development meeting. "There's about twenty seven hours of technical reading, but Dragon will be kind enough to summarize all our plans." Lisa pressed the button that activated our meeting. Multiple holograms popped up. Dragon, Accord, Rapture and Halo. Why's he here for this one? For our part, only myself, Taylor and Lisa and Emma were here for this one. Due to her multidiscipline tinker specialty, she was functionally our tech advisor for this meeting.


    "Good morning, Pantheon," Dragon acknowledged. "Esteemed guests. We are here to discuss the management of the newly established nation-world. Pantheon has, of course, been acknowledged as the rulers of an interim government presiding over their earth Avalon. This meeting is an unofficial discussion of the intended management of that world, both in the nature of its laws, and the nature of its role in the international, and soon to be interplanetary, community. I would remind those present that this is unofficial. Any suggestions and agreements made here today are, as such, also unofficial and nonbinding."


    We all nodded in understanding. This was too massive to just decide in a single day. We'd need to hire legal experts and god only knows what others to get everything smoothed out perfectly. On the other hand, we had the world's ultimate think tank here. Details would be handled over time, but the broad strokes would be established here. If, as Dragon put it, unofficially.


    "Accord has drawn up an excellent development model for the effort of Avalon's industrialization," Lisa announced first. "I apologize for being unable to review it fully before this meeting, but as always the plan is brilliant. We can basically just hand a copy to the city government and walk away. I appreciate the extra effort put into creating a model which does not take parahuman involvement into account, beyond the ever present Yggdrasil."


    "You're welcome," Accord replied, sounding about as happy as I've ever heard him. Which was still about the same as a slightly annoyed Carol. "I felt it was necessary to recognize that not all locations would have access to appropriate parahuman resources. The intent was to allow natural development to occur at a rapid but stable pace on its own."


    "Industrial resources, we can supply," Emma replied next. "In what is a gross waste of our tinker talents, we've designed a series of organisms that can provide basically any form of oil or gas product. I won't go into too much detail, but suffice it to say a couple thousand square miles of Yggdrasil dedicated to the process, and properly supplied by solar energy surrounding the region and garbage for mass, could provide pretty much all the crude oil consumption needs of Earth Bet. We will be able to get even more efficiency once we switch to biodiesel, but we'd still have need for petroleum for plastics and the like, so the designs will continue to have value."


    "Also a good way to keep the country funded," Lisa added. "The US and UN have made it abundantly clear that any attempt to get into the oil industry on Bet world would result in some problems, but on our own world? Well, if we're charging for gas, we probably won't even need taxes to pay for anything. Or at least very little for a long time. Plus or minus rent."


    "I would be willing to purchase fuels for a number of my projects," Dragon offered. "I prefer not to get political, but there is an appeal in not giving my money to oil companies."


    "Of course, there is the issue of money and economy," Lisa added. "Accord has drawn up points in that regard as well. As a nation functionally lacking in 'fiat' wealth, we have to back our economy on reality as opposed to perception. Having a reliable trade partner helps. We can also count land ownership as a pretty strong basic wealth, but that will have less appeal as there's not a lack of places to live."


    "I've already created a system for specialized Yggdrasil that will merge into the normal replace the old with new features and structures," I replied. "Food will be unlimited. I can create versions that become roads or grow into small houses. Nearly instant small communities. Bigger ones will need metals and construction materials, of course."


    "With my help, that likely won't be an issue," Dragon offered. "I have need of a larger manufacturing base than Bet can currently provide me. You have already generously provided a region for me to work with, and I would continue to do so. In the process, I'd hire my own people and purchase my own construction equipment and transport it to Avalon. Once my needs are fully met, I could provide a seed from which other development companies could start and expand. In fact, I would like to invest in those companies, myself. Your world currently has a great deal of untapped exploitable resources. Once your industrial age begins, it won't take long to reach modern development status. Albeit with a significantly lower population than most industrial nations."


    "Which brings us to finding colonists," I stated. We'd all given this a great deal of thought, after all. "Atropos made an interesting suggestion the other day. We can, essentially, recruit Japan." ConfusionInterest. I smiled. "She said her parents are immigrants, came over before Kyushu. Japanese culture is strongly focused on family and heritage, and the collapse of their country into third world status is understandably heartbreaking to them. She suggested we could give Avalon's Japan to Bet's Japan, with similar governing concessions that they've already had with America since after World War Two. It might take some convincing, but she really thinks it could work. And there's always refugees from elsewhere."


    "That would be a significant head start," Lisa agreed. "We can even do better since our governing system would give them worldwide influence. A lot of it considering they could instantly become the most populous region on the planet. It also brings us into governing as a whole. Dragon's provided us an excellent design that I could only call a 'Constitutional Federal Monarchy'. She's probably better equipped to explain."


    "Yes," Dragon responded. "It would function fairly similarly to the British Empire at the height of its power, with a various local governments working alongside a powerful but distant monarchy. You would provide the monarchy, and with it the military aspect of your world."


    "At the representative level, the government is not that different from American states," Lisa added. "They assign their own chosen leaders to be, functionally, our own brand of Congress and Senate. Though who they select is more the way governments send people to represent them in the United Nations. Just like the states, they'll be their own countries, but you wouldn't know it by looking at them. It's an ideal hybrid of independence and interdependence. And takes care of most of the effort of managing a planet from us."


    "That sounds pretty good," I agreed. It really does. Totalitarian government, even benign totalitarian government, wasn't something I wanted to be a part of. Controlling the military was fine, if only because I didn't want anyone else controlling it. I had memories of the PRT and fucking China to teach me why putting that power in the hands of people was unacceptably frightening.


    "As for us?" Lisa continued. "We're the military branch. Police, too. We have less power than, say, the US President. Bit of veto power, but our legal systems pretty automated thanks to the contributions of what's going to be an extremely powerful judicial system, compared to the USA. Be sure to thank Rapture and Emma for this baby."


    Oh boy. "Yes," Rapture spoke. "We've developed a mass production system for what are, essentially, perfect lie detectors." SurpriseAnticipation. "In essense, your legal system will never be held back by the need to consider whether a criminal is actually guilty or not. With exception to parahumans who might have resistance to the tech through any number of possible methods. They'll be considerably more difficult to handle, but are fairly rare."


    "As such," Dragon responded. "Law will focus on determining the extent of punishments appropriate for particular crimes. A less costly and more streamlined affair. It will provide equal protection thanks to unbiased, AI systems. Although determining a punishment for a given crime will be handled by jury, guilt itself can never be in doubt and no agency will be able to cover up a crime's occurance. Although investigative work will likely still be needed to find criminals quickly, citizens will be required to regularly submit to an automated interview to catch people whose crimes have gone unnoticed."


    "That... that's insane," Taylor spoke. "A system that can honestly protect everyone equally." Her emotions were complex and hard to parse, combining mixtures of anger, regret, frustration, hope and vindication. She must be thinking of what might have happened for her if she had been able to rely upon such a system.


    "You'd have to rewrite at least three amendments to make it happen in the US," Lisa smirked. "Also it'll be a while before we have the infrastructure to really produce judges, juries and overall legal systems. So here's hoping the other incentives keep people away from being criminals for a while."


    "There's an entire section in here regarding the legal rights applying to, and I quote 'unnaturally created, modified, nonhuman and otherwise unusual sapient beings'?" Halo spoke up.


    "Yes," I answered. "In addition to the various forms of Case 53s, there is the fact that my sister's currently in a body she wasn't born with. There's been a few years for the law to catch up to stuff like that, but at this moment you could argue that she's not entitled to legal recognition under US law. And there's the possibility of AIs, or a power like mine in the hands of someone who'd actually use it that way."


    "Fair enough," he replied. "While we're on the subject of legal rights, your stance on religious freedom?"


    "Similar to America," I answered.


    "Even if we wanted to take a different approach, we really couldn't," Lisa replied. "We will enforce strictly protected equal rights for everyone, and beyond that we're just going to leave it to our individual nations. In fact, the brilliant part of this system is we can do that with almost everything. Our function here is basically the same as on Bet. We exist to eliminate problems and make sure others don't want to become problems."


    ============

    A/N- Isn't it lovely when a plan comes together? And makes a world.
     
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2015
  11. Threadmarks: Canon PHO Omake
    Hexed999

    Hexed999 I trust you know where the happy button is?

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2015
    Messages:
    715
    Likes Received:
    1,246
    PHO Omake


    Welcome to the Parahumans Online Message Boards
    You are currently logged in, Acolyte (Temp-banned) (Cape Groupie) (Pantheon Loyalist)
    You are viewing:
    • Threads you have replied to
    • AND Threads that have new replies
    • OR private message conversations with new replies
    • Thread OP is displayed
    • Ten posts per page
    • Last ten messages in private message history
    • Threads and private messages are ordered by user custom preference.
    Your temporary ban expires on December 1, 2011.
    You have 25 infractions and 15 warnings. You were last banned on September 28, 2011.
    â– 
    ♦Topic: A New World? (LOCKED)
    In: Boards â–º Theories â–º Conspiracy â–º World â–º Pantheon
    Acolyte (Original Poster) (Cape Groupie) (Pantheon Loyalist)
    Posted on October 12, 2011:
    Early August/Late July Pantheon began utilizing a new form of teleportation technology. Intially it seemed to be just like any other, except for the fact that there appeared to be no limit to how much they could transport and how far it could go. On August 15th they transported a massive army that no one had seen before from a unknown location and then saved the lives of several capes by teleporting them to an unknown location, saving them from the Simurgh's final strike.
    Like everything Pantheon does, their teleportation devices are shrouded in mystery. Where did they store their army of beasts? Where did Minerva and Chariot take the capes they saved and why did they return to New Dehli?
    I've heard rumors from the tinker community that Pantheon's devices are immune to regular anti-telepotation countermeasures. One tinker got his hands on one of their devices and made a post claiming it was closer to Haywire's technology then a teleporter. The post was deleted and no one's heard from him since.
    And now closed door meetings are being held across in the highest levels of government. Meetings on everything from colinization plans to Interdimensional politics to the sovereignty of a Parahuman State.
    It is clear that Pantheon has discovered a new world and remade it in their image and our Overlords are doing their best to get a slice of the pie. The only question is what do we do?
    I for one will be immigrating to Pantheon's world at the first available opertunity. The chance to escape our oppressors and enter Pantheon's loving embrace shoudl not be passed over.
    THIS THREAD HAS BEEN LOCKED, ANY POSTS MADE HERE WILL BE DELETED IMMEDIATELY AND THE POSTER WILL BE BANNED FOR ONE DAY

    (Showing Page 30 of 31)

    â–º Judge (Moderator)
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    Pantheon has done nothing but protect and aid people and has proven essential to preserving our rights and freedoms, including developing a extremely effective anti-master drug. The claim that they are intending to take over and "put the people with real power in charge" is extremely offensive and completely unfounded. Enjoy your ban.
    â–º Zero Sum
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    You clearly haven't seen Pantheon in action. If they wanted control of BB, or the New England for that matter, they would have it.
    â–º Judge (Moderator)
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    Not helping
    â–º Stone Face
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    This is all very interesting but can we get back to the topic at hand? All evidence that Pantheon has access to an alternate universe is both flimsy and circumstantial. While I'm not putting anything past them I'd like to see some hard evidence before I assume they have a spare world.
    â–º Acolyte (Original Poster) (Cape Groupie) (Pantheon Loyalist)
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    Just like a shill, to deny the evidence that is right in front of you. Pantheon is more powerful then they let on and the government is trying to cover it up so you don't realize that there's a better option then letting them grind you into the dirt.
    â–º Acolyte (Original Poster) (Cape Groupie) (Pantheon Loyalist)
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    Just like a shill, to deny the evidence that is right in front of you. Pantheon is more powerful then they let on and the government is trying to cover it up so you don't realize that there's a better option then letting them grind you into the dirt.
    *User as recieved an infraction for this post*
    â–º Judge (Moderator)
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean they're a shill
    â–º Chrome
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    Yes, because a bunch of teenagers who think they're gods are a way better option then our rightfully elected leaders.
    â–º Acolyte (Original Poster) (Cape Groupie) (Pantheon Loyalist)
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    If you think we actually have a say in who gets elected then you're dumber then I thought.
    â–º Chrome
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    Says the guy whose too dumb to avoid double posting. If we're not choosing who gets elected, who is? The lizard people? Giant alien space whales? Democracy is a tried and tested method that protects us from one that one person with power who wants to screw us over. History has shown us that every time power is handed to one person they go mad with it. And that's without Big Sister seeing your every move through her creepy bugs. Pantheon has too much power as is and sooner or later they're going to decide that they need more for the "greater good". They need to be restrained now, before it's too late.

    End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 28, 29, 30, 31
    (Showing Page 31 of 31)

    â–º Newter (Verified Cape)
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    Man I wish I was the secret power behind the government, that would be awesome
    â–º Stone Face
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    Man where the hell did Judge go? This is getting bad, fast.
    â–º Acolyte (Original Poster) (Cape Groupie) (Pantheon Loyalist)
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    Maybe Pantheon should seize power, they've certainly shown that they have the ability to get things done. I bet that if they took over we'd be looking at cleaner cities, less crime and a fuckload of dead Endbringers. They're certainly more suited for the task then anyone you voted for
    â–º Chrome
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    And what are you going to do when they decide that regualr humans aren't good enough for their new and better future? Just shug and submit to modification? Pantheon has shown time and time again that the're willing to pervert nature to complete their goals. Right now they're sticking to big emergencies but what happens when they kill the last S-Class threat? They'll look for other ways to imporve things and decide that humans would be better if they were a little less human. They've already started experiments with Acesco. And what about behaviour modification? Do you think Blasto and Accord just gave up crime because Pantheon asked them to? Why would they imprison criminals when they can "reeducate" them? I guess you think free will's overrated.
    â–º Ekul (Banned)
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    *Your post has been deleted, you are not a member of the PRT, you haven't killed 300 C.U.I. agents and the tech guys assure me you can't trace anyone's IP. This is the fifth time you've attempted to derail a thread with this stupid, violent rant of yours despite our warnings and temp bans. You are no longer welcome on this site*
    â–º Acolyte (Original Poster) (Temp-banned) (Cape Groupie) (Pantheon Loyalist)
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    The day you get reeducated I'll fucking celebrate
    â–º Chrome (Temp-banned)
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    Ha, you'll probably sacrifice yourself to your "gods" before that ever happens
    â–º Judge (Moderator)
    Replied on October 16, 2011:
    I step away from to computer to have dinner and come back to this. I'm giving you both a month and half to cool down and I'm locking this thread. The only people who know what Pantheon can do is Pantheon and the lot of you seem incapable of speculating civilly. 31 pages of this crap is more than enough.
    End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 29, 30, 31



    So this derailed far faster then I expected it would, apparently crazy and discussion just don't mix
     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2015
    N0Way, Snow908, GFFerrari and 94 others like this.
  12. Threadmarks: Amelia, Ch 223- Melanie
    TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2015
    Messages:
    24,348
    Likes Received:
    260,014
    Amelia, Ch 223- Melanie


    "So, how's Pantheon's toy treating you?" I asked Newter as he lounged in one of the private booths. Recently he'd been acting a little unusual, as evidenced by the lack of attractive girls who were often too young to purchase alcohol. He of course never did anything untoward to them, and in fact made them sign wavers before allowing them to recreationally try his drug. I was initially hesitant to allow him to do that at all, but he had proven discreet and it tended to draw in men wealthy enough to pay good money, and girls attractive enough to get wealthy men (or women) to pay good money.


    Remarkably enough, it actually reduced the other recreational drugs making their way into my club. Or at least it did, before Pantheon put the kibosh on that market entirely. Every few weeks, some fucker would still bring some date rape drug in here. They were given the option of being taken out back, beaten by a couple of the bouncers, and then given to the police. Or taken out back and left for Khepri to deal with. I almost felt sorry for the bastards who chose option two. Almost.


    "Oh, the usual," he answered, lounging back with his wine glass. I knew from experience that it wasn't wine. Likely a clear soda, possibly sparkling water. He always said it was a waste of good booze, since his powers meant he couldn't get intoxicated. "My IQ's gone up a few more points, I'd be in the top five percent of non-parahumans except," he gestured by spreading his arms and then bending his hands inwards. "My reaction speed and hand-eye coordination deserves its own thinker rating, with both hands. And I keep having those dreams about the mildew room."


    "It's something, at least," I replied. Not long after Newter started the treatment, he began having the vivid lucid dreams about a room with a mildewy smell, but he couldn't see or hear or touch anything, he was simply in the dark with the smell. We asked Yum Kaax about that, and he said something about smell being the sense most strongly tied to memory. Nothing was certain.


    "Everything we were promised and more," he agreed, with his usual cheer.


    But not the one thing we were hoping for, I frowned. "Sounds like we should consider having all of us use it," I replied. We had tried it on Elle, but that failed to show results. Patheon's tinker theorized it was because her power caused the problem. The neural regeneration tech could repair any biological and even a lot of psychological disorders, but much like Case 53s regenerating their bodies back to their nonhuman state if someone like Gaea repairs them, the ones that altered the mind wouldn't allow that mind to be altered back. Elle could never be normal unless her power was removed.


    "Couldn't hurt," he replied, then took another swallow of his drink. "Anyway, I'm feeling a bit peckish. Can you let the doorman know to expect a couple pizzas in an hour or so?"


    "Will do," I agreed as I turned and left. It was an obvious dismissal, and I tried to respect my employees' wishes when it didn't interfere with the job. Newter wished to be left alone to gorge himself on junk food. We all had our ways of coping.


    ....


    Elle was staring at the wall, slowly running her hand across it. As she did so, the Yggdrasil's dark teal coloration would shift, changing color and texture at random. Over the course of hours, it would fade back to its original color. Pantheon had given us a special house for her, and any of us, to stay in. Being alive, the Yggdrasil was resistant to alteration Elle's power. Not completely, for reasons no one quite understood, but it was enough that the girl could safely stay in this home without any risk to herself, us, or the property. Any damage caused by her power's 'friction' against unchanged Yggdrasil would regrow quickly.


    Emily was attempting to feed the girl while she played. Mashed potatoes and peas. Something she could eat safely if she forgot to chew, which could happen on a bad day. Pantheon talked about permanent power removal, I reminded myself. Elle might be able to be restored to normal, at the cost of her powers. I pushed that thought back. We needed her, no one else could provide the dimensional gates. And those gates, the safe havens they represented, were what was going to give humanity a real hope for the future.


    I didn't believe Pantheon could end the Endbringers. They got the Simurgh, somehow. Maybe they could even kill Leviathan and Behemoth, but Barghest was custom designed to beat Pantheon, that was obvious to everyone that was actually paying attention. All the replacements would be as well. The only real solution was to get off of Bet. Find worlds where there might be some hope in the future. If an Endbringer crosses into another dimension, seal it off and leave them trapped inside. It was a cruel sort of math. Sacrificing a world, maybe a million people, so that the rest of us could have a future. But it was our only real hope.


    "Good morning, Elle," I said as tenderly as I could. She didn't respond at all, hadn't seemed to hear me at all. I hadn't expected that she would. I'm sorry, Elle, you have to be one of the sacrifices. As she absently swallowed her food, I examined her art. Crudely drawn, but angry seeming stick figures and faces. Some held objects that may have been sticks, or perhaps guns. Bars, cages and chains were strewn about. Strangely, those were done in disturbing detail, each link painstakingly drawn. Another aspect of the damage her power had done to her.


    "So, Tattletale just called," I informed Emily. I don't care what she calls herself, she'll always be Tattletale to me. "Our negotiations are locked in and agreed upon. "There's still stupid arguments over where to establish portals, and the order of priority, and other shit that the talking heads won't finish until Christmas or the next Endbringer fight, whichever happens first. And then suddenly everything will be solved in a couple days and they'll all announce success and then go give each other congratulatory handj-" I remembered the little girl in the room. "shakes in the back room."


    "I still don't know how you managed to negotiate pay of two million dollars a portal during an international mandate that the Sanctuary Initiative was a humanitarian aid project and to remain completely nonprofit," Emily smirked. "Seriously, are you sure you don't have a Master or Thinker power?"


    "Simple," I answered. "I didn't negotiate for the portals. I negotiated for security."


    "Security?" She asked. "Oooh, I think I get it. There's all kinds of dangerous people out there who might want to capture or kill the portal makers. You'll need to provide bodyguards and parahuman protection over us during the trip and the stay in hotels. You could probably make that a lot more expensive than a couple million a pop."


    "Right on the money," I confirmed. "Plus or minus a few other details. I let them talk me down from three, just so they could feel like they won something. It's not like they won't profit from this. New land, new people, new taxes. It's only fair we get our part of the pie." And to ensure that Elle gets the best care for the rest of her life, we owe her so much more than that.


    "Unlike Pantheon, we're not getting a shiny new planet of our own."


    "Wait," she blinked. "They're asking for a planet!?" she stressed the last word hard enough that it even got Elle to glance over at her, though only for a second before she returned to her art.


    "I bet it'll end up being more than one," I shrugged. "Remember how they were talking about Gaea's dead playground world when we did that first portal?"


    "Yeah," her eyes widened. "That place was a wasteland. Like. A billion nuclear bombs level wasteland. They fixed it?"


    "Yup," I answered. "Safe for humans. Or will be in a month or two. They're arguing that it's not private exploitation of a Sanctuary world, because their Avalon. That's what they named it, by the way. Could never have supported life without them."


    "Think it'll work?" she asked.


    "Oh, absolutely," I agreed. "They need it too much to say no. Besides, the experimental tunnel showed there are hundreds of habitable worlds without any humans. Selling something that was never theirs and they couldn't use anyway? Easiest price in the world to pay. It's the next two parts that are going to make them drag their feet, and that won't take much longer."


    "Please dish," Emily leaned toward me, while Elle continued to work her art.


    "First," I started. "Think about it. They've got one dead world. There are easily dozens of others in similar states. They can keep claiming those without making many waves. Maybe they'll make a token gesture and give away half their salvaged planets. By the time we run out of acceptable options, Pantheon will have five times as many worlds as their next two competitors combined."


    "Shit," she agreed.


    "Second," I finished. "They're not negotiating over the planet. That's a given. What they want is recognition from the international community that they are a country. In short, Pantheon's members are one rubber stamp away from being one of the most powerful nations on earth. Seems fair to me that we walk away from this with about thirty mil each, give or take."


    "You're not getting paid enough," she informed me.


    "I know."
     
    Last edited: May 16, 2015
  13. Threadmarks: Amelia, Ch 224- Melanie
    TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2015
    Messages:
    24,348
    Likes Received:
    260,014
    Amelia, Ch 224- Melanie


    "I'm not getting paid nearly enough," I muttered. Atropos had finally arrived, in full costume, with a travel pack that was pretty much an oversized six legged suitcase. Literal legs, it trotted near her like an obedient dog. Along with her were three others. Eki and Victoria, I recognized. The young man that could have been Latino or Mediterranean in ancestry, I had never seen before. All were, of course, also in their armors.


    "I dunno," the tall blond in front of me smirked. "I'd say you're making bank right now. Two mil a portal? All five of you? That's two hundred grand per job, and each job can be done in a few hours for basically no risk. No one ever paid me that kind of money. One guy did try to hire me for a job that paid almost as good a while ago. I inquired as to what company made such a generous offer, but for some reason he had come down with a sudden case of knocked the fuck out. Later we had a conversation but we got too busy talking about my family life. Like how my mother was just made a senior partner at her lawfirm, and how I planned to celebrate my seventeenth birthday. We forgot all about his job offer in the excitement."


    "You're making all of that up," the remarkably good looking young man insisted. Now that he was closer, I noted his armor was one of the rather bland and generic battle armors that Pantheon mass produces for the Protectorate. He probably doesn't have an abusable power type, I decided.


    "Nope, all true," Victoria smiled cheerfully. "I may have embellished a little bit at the end. The conversation was pretty one sided, seeing as his jaw was wired shut. Other than that, all true. But I digress. We were talking about Faultline's career, not mine." Is this girl taking notes from Tattletale? Or she could even be Tattletale. I knew who she was suppose to be, but a little bit of Blasto's cloning and some body shaping with their bullshit powers... couldn't rule out anything.


    "Miss Dallon?" I asked, trying to get her attention focused, though I knew she was doing this on purpose.


    "Wow," Vicky replied. "So you do remember me!"


    "It's hard not to," I answered as noncommittally as possible. "Victoria Dallon, recently brought back from the dead with a brand new powerset. One that makes your old one look boring by comparison."


    "How is making villains drop to their knees and weep in front of me a boring power?" she retorted. "Sure, maybe I got better powers now, but you can't call my old set the least bit boring. Maybe it's just because you were too smart to start trouble in the same city as me?"


    Tattletale clone, I would bet money on it. "Or Armsmaster," I replied.


    "Oh god!" she exclaimed. "Best gossip ever!"


    "What?" Atropos asked with the kind of familiar confidence that led me to believe they'd done something similar before. The man, who I still hadn't put a name to, was less assured. A new recruit, I decided. Wonder what kind of top tier power this one has. I didn't put too much concern into it. Power follows power, after all, and Pantheon had absurd amounts of power. Besides, I was more concerned with Tattle-two-point-oh.


    Victoria's grin widened into something just a little less malicious, but not less infuriating, than the real Tattletale's. "Turns out, Faultline here had a crush on Armsmaster." God damn it.


    "Really?" Atropos laughed.


    "Can we just get to the point?" I insisted, trying very hard to sound more bored and less annoyed. "There's no point in talking about the dead."


    "Oh, right, knew we forgot something," Victoria responded. "Well, the bosses agreed that your point about needing security was a good one. So we're here to provide security for our half of this equation."


    What? "What?" I asked. "Your half is an Endslayer. What does she need protected from?"


    "That's what I said," the blond sighed. "But they were pretty insistent that we go along. I tried to argue with them, but they wouldn't listen. My sister and her fiancee are like the most overprotective parents ever."


    "Hey, I got the cameras," Eki replied as she held up a bag. "Do you think eight extra memory sticks will be enough?"


    I looked at her, and back toward Victoria. "Cameras?"


    "We gotta make sure we document any incidents, right?"


    "So how many boring places do we have to go through before Milan?" Eki asked.


    I raised an eyebrow. "Hey, if I have to go anyway, I might as well try to make the best out of a bad situation," Victoria added. "Plus since we have an Italian speaker on the team anyway..."


    "I'm looking forward to England, myself," the young man added.


    "Just because you think British accents are hot," Eki teased, jabbing him lightly with her elbow. He blushed slightly. Well, he won't have any trouble finding girls who'll appreciate the attention, I added internally.


    "Just remember that if my sister has to cure anyone's herpes, she will tell me, and I will tell everyone else," Victoria practically sang.


    "You spend way too much time around Zach," Eki said dryly.


    "Not my fault the only good shooter game involving the CUI pretty much requires co-op mode," she replied. "Would you rather I have the shitty AI soldiers run the chain gun mounted on the back of the Puma? Sure as hell ain't gonna play with those creepy fucks online. I swear to god, if another nasally pimple infested thirteen year old asks me to send pictures of my tits, I will use my power to find a way to kill the internet forever."


    This is hell, I decided. This is Tattletale's revenge for outsmarting her and making money off of this in spite of all her efforts to make that impossible. Well played, bitch. Well fucking played. "Are you going to introduce me to the new guy?" I asked, hoping to change the subject.


    "Oh, right, where are my manners?" Victoria smiled. "This is Janus. He'll be our chauffeur for this event."


    "Good to meet you, ma'am," he smiled and extended his hand. I accepted it, expecting a handshake. Instead he lifted it up and gave my fingers a light kiss. Really laying on the charm there, huh kid? I smiled back. He's a little too effeminate for my tastes, but if I'm not careful I'll need a crowbar to pry Emily off.


    "Charmed," I answered. "So, I know the powers the others bring to the table. What are you capable of?"


    "Long range teleportation," he answered. "I can teleport things to myself, or I can choose a location anywhere on the planet and send them there instead. Pantheon bought an abandoned oil platform a couple miles off into the ocean that I can put trouble makers, and a hospital to send civilians if we need to."


    "That is quite an ability," I responded. Screw the crowbar, I'm going to give Emily some champagne and my finest tips for dealing with men. "So, how much are they paying you? I could use an extra hand around here." I of course expected to be turned down, but it opened the dialogue for the future.


    Atropos laughed. "I remember when you were trying to recruit me."


    "And if you had accepted, we could charge a hundred times as much for these gateways and no one would bat an eye before paying up," I pointed out. "We could have all been billionaires in a couple years."


    "True," she agreed. "But instead, I get to be an Endslayer. One of the most talked about badasses on the planet. And now a member of the Japanese Imperial family. You should have seen the look on my parents faces when they found out about that."


    "And laid," Victoria added. "You get that a lot, too."


    One of the wings from Atropos' costume snapped out. Victoria was knocked back several feet. Remarkably, she back flipped a couple times and landed feet first on the wall, then dropped to the ground, standing.


    "You let her hit you!?" Eki declared in shock.


    "If I didn't, she'd have plotted something even worse. Probably got her girlfriend to help, and that's a fight I would lose so hard," Victoria replied. "Anti precog battle armor is such bullshit."


    Janus had the good sense to look embarrassed by the display. "Sorry, ma'am," he shrugged sheepishly. "I do appreciate the offer, but I'm not the sort that's really concerned with money. If I was, I'd have just continued living the good life as the child of a supervillain mob boss."


    "Well, I had to try," I responded. Okay, Emily, ball is entirely in your court now.


    =================

    A/N- I had fun with this chapter. I also nearly missed a continuity error with jokes involving Dragon by forgetting that Armsmaster is thought to be dead.
     
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2015
  14. Threadmarks: Ch 225- Riley
    TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2015
    Messages:
    24,348
    Likes Received:
    260,014
    Amelia, Ch 225- Riley


    It's cold here. That wasn't exactly a surprise, of course, it was the middle of winter. But on Avalon, the temperatures tended to be pretty even thanks to the Yggdrasil's regulation of the weather. Or maybe it's because I'm accustomed to the weather near the coast, which is still warmer than this far inland.


    "Are you going to be okay?" Amelia asked. No, I reminded myself. This is a mission, she's Gaea here. I smiled as she placed a hand gently on my shoulder. She's concerned about my wellbeing.


    "Dinah gives me almost ten percent better odds than anyone else," I answered, looking up at her. "Besides, it's Clarice, not me. I'm perfectly safe."


    "I know," she answered, her breath visible in the chill air. "But this is still Nilbog."


    She's scared of him, I realized. What he is, what he represents, what he's done. A dark mirror to her own power, what she could have become. What she would have become, if Jack had gotten ahold of her. "I know," I answered with confidence, though it didn't seem to make her feel better. "You don't have to worry, there's nothing he can do that compares to me. He's a fairy tale. I'm a goddess."


    She didn't seem comforted by that, either. If anything, it seemed to upset her more. I suck at making people feel better.


    "Everything's ready on this end," Khepri responded. "Relay bugs are through, I'm expanding out to cover the city. It's strange, though. Even for this time of year, there should be more bugs. There's barely even any worms in the soil. I don't have the ability to search for anything."


    "There's still time to cancel the mission," Defiant asked us. He had been the one most vocally opposed to this plan from the beginning. He was also the one that Dragon trusted to monitor this mission up close.


    "No," Minerva answered immediately. "Our odds plummet if we wait much longer. Whatever inconveniences we face now, keep in mind we have an over ninety eight on this. Besides, we need this victory now, after the destruction of Behemoth got claimed by the CUI."


    "Hardly seems we can consider Behemoth and Nilbog to be equivalent," Defiant countered. He doesn't like Minerva. That's a point in his favor. Then again, that was a point in almost everyone's favor.


    "Not even close," she agreed. "But better than nothing by far."


    The pair of them and Yum Kaax were managing our command center for this mission. Our other tinkers all had their own projects. Tir was working on large scale shunt devices for Japan alongside Hecate. Dragon would listen in, but she was putting most of her efforts on our world into establishing an industry base and moving the core of her operations to our world. Who knew populating our own nation-world would take so much work?


    Their advice wouldn't make the difference in this mission, anyway. I'm the key component, I'm the one whose actions determine success or failure.


    We had positioned at the epicenter of the city, the heart of it. Finding the Goblin King would be Taylor's job, but it was likely near us, or in the most impressive looking building left standing.


    "The scan's complete," Yum Kaax informed us. "We're bringing up the dimensional viewer system."


    There was a shimmer as the sky changed and our otherwise barren landscape was replaced by buildings. Most suffered from general lack of repair, but were mostly intact. Snow coated the ground in thick drifts. Old snow, from the looks of it, but still pristine. Throughout the city there was no sign that the smallest bit had been touched by life since it had fallen.


    Big Sis saw it, too. "Everything's dead," she muttered.


    "Not everything," Minerva answered. "We're getting life signs. Nilbog's monsters. There's not a lot of them, but they're there. Buried under the snow or hibernating in buildings. You'd think they were dead. In fact, a lot of them are dead."


    "It's the cold," Yum Kaax replied. "His creations, they've stripped this city of resources. Probably running on solar energy just to keep themselves alive. But Nilbog isn't like Amelia. He can't just magic up biosystems and remodel them at will. He imagines and he creates, but that's it, there's no understanding of how or what he's creating. More like Genesis than anyone on our team. They may be stronger than anything Amelia or I can build conventionally, but they're starved for raw material. Proteins. Some of the complex saccharides, perhaps. And he doesn't know how to grow something that can make more."


    "Wasteful," Defiant muttered. "He could have grown gardens. Potatoes and soybeans would cover most needs."


    Yum Kaax simply shrugged. "I never said that he was smart. Clever, maybe, but definitely not smart. Then again, by the time he ever realized he needed seeds and other supplies, they were probably eaten by something."


    "He'll wait until spring and have the living bring him the dead," Minerva added. "Then he'll consume what he has to and replace what he can. That's why Dinah said it had to be now, during this cold snap. It's the time when he's weakest, when he's most aware of the inevitable point when he no longer has the resources to keep his creations alive."


    "If we were going for an assassination," Defiant volunteered, "Now would be the time. Or we can simply allow him to die of starvation."


    "Dinah says that results in the death of millions of people," Minerva responded. "No matter what plan I suggest, or what counters we propose, it always results in millions of deaths. And, yes, I verified that it's human people, not Nilbog monster people. Yes, that applies to just leaving him alone. Eventually he'll get desperate enough to break out of containment."


    "I believe I've found him," Khepri answered. "It's the one building with heat, and it's about a block from here. Aceso, time for you to shine."


    "On it," I responded, taking a seat. Clarice and Bella, or stripped down models of them both, started to move. A couple buttons pressed, Bella stretched her beautiful wings, and they both shunted over into the heart of Nilbog's realm. My sensors started relaying data immediately


    It was far colder here than on Avalon. Temperatures well below freezing, although nothing that could threaten our constructs. Calmly, I approached Nilbog's throne through Clarice. The building was obviously once the town hall, but was now covered in wild growths of plants and vines that had either died or went dormant. Flags and other colorful cloth draped the area like something from a medieval reenactment, but had long ago started to tear and fade. Now they were mere rags.


    Two monsters barred the door. Both were large, feline in nature. Their heads were distinctly humanoid, however, and they had almost comically large breasts with much of their torsos keeping to a mostly human form. Their eyes were enormous in proportion to their faces, and they had minuscule mouths in comparison. This is the work of a man who forgot what humans looked like, I realized. Something intended to be beautiful, but instead only fit to disgust and disturb. This is why I'm the ideal candidate. I know how he thinks.


    "Sphinxes," Minerva informed. An obvious statement, if there was ever one. But I waited for the insight that should come. "Nilbog's put more effort into these than most, and he's keeping them active despite the cold. They're some of his favorites. There were three, but they died recently. These two are what he had the supplies to rebuild. This is why Dinah's numbers spiked recently."


    I might be able to use that.


    "Who are you," one demanded. Her voice was wrong, irregular, an unnatural combination of high pitch and loud that wouldn't happen in most normal life. It was more like listening to Minnie Mouse with the volume up far too high. And her inflections were stressed, as if from a second rate actress trying to mimic royalty or dramatic speech. Or a child imitating something she watched.


    "I wish to speak with Nilbog," I told them. "I am an emissary from the gods."


    "Going a bit off script there," Gaea whispered, although there was no need to.


    "No, it's perfect," Minerva insisted. "Riley, you're a genius." To my surprise, the insulting comment comparing me to Doctor Frankenstein or something similar didn't follow, a rarity. Probably just doesn't want to be unprofessional during the mission.


    The sphinxes moved toward me, but a simple command brought Bella back and took her further off the ground. The gust from her wings disturbed the snow only barely. Neither of Nilbog's guards came out to mar the perfect white. "I will speak with your master, he is worthy," I told them. "You are not."


    "Offer him a gift," Khepri responded. "Or, no, call it a blessing. We'll get it ready."


    =============

    A/N- Next chapter is either meeting Nilbog, or me cutting to a different scene entirely. Guess which!
     
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2015
  15. Threadmarks: Amelia, Ch 226- Riley
    TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2015
    Messages:
    24,348
    Likes Received:
    260,014
    Amelia, Ch 226- Riley


    I nodded, and Clarice spoke. "I bring a blessing to your lord, but only to his person, and none other. One does not get to snub divinity." Shatterbird would be proud of my display here, I thought. She'd deny it, of course, and find some way to insult it. But she would be impressed nonetheless.


    A voice called out from inside, which Clarice easily picked up on. It was excessively jovial, overdramatic and strange. But unlike my behavior as Bonesaw, this man was not faking it in any way. This is how he wants to act and believes he should act. "Spectacular! I've never met a goddess before! Come in, come in!"


    I allowed Bella to descend, and she walked into the building, her wings folded to her sides. Or she pretended to walk. It had taken weeks of work to achieve it, but this was actually a flight subroutine. Bella would mimic walking or running, but her feet would never touch the ground. One of my favorite bits of showmanship. The features were also programmed into the other steeds I had built, of course, but it was designed for Bella.


    Nilbog was sitting upon a throne that looked to be cobbled together from modifying a love seat. He was massive, easily four or five hundred pounds, and most of it was fat. His skin coated in a thin greaselike substance that was blotted with the ashes of fires and dirt. "You spoke of a blessing?" he asked with the eagerness of a five year old. It would take all of minutes for a man like Jack to twist this pathetic sap to his will.


    "Yes, I did," I answered, still astride Bella. "I am Aceso, I come here to your kingdom on behalf of Gaea, bringing a message from all the gods. An invitation."


    "What if I do not believe you are a god, child?" he asked, still smiling. This was a game I knew, feigning haughtiness in the face of a possibly superior foe. Jack might not have written that book, but he certainly added a few chapters.


    "Nothing will happen," I answered.


    "So you are afraid of me?" he laughed, his multiple chins shaking. Drops of oil splattered down his body. Most people would find him repulsive, I knew. I certainly didn't find him attractive, but I was familiar with worse horrors than he had to offer. I created many of them.


    "Not in the least," I answered. "I will simply take my leave of you. Your punishment will be nothing at all. Gods are secure in their power, and unbelievers suffer simply for being unbelievers."


    "No!" he insisted. "Gods are mighty and should demonstrate their might. Teach the unbelievers to suffer for the crime of refusing to obey and bow to them. Only weak gods would allow themselves to be ignored. You are no god."


    "He's projecting," Minerva informed us. "He was a loner and a loser before getting his powers. He knows what he did to Ellisburg was wrong, but he has convinced himself that they were at fault for treating him wrong. He still feels guilt, though he will of course deny that, even to himself."


    "I can prove otherwise," I answered. "Gods have great knowledge. For example, I know that this body you present here is not the real you. That is fine, you may talk to me through your intermediary. More importantly, I know that your kingdom is slowly dying."


    He frowned, his mood darkening.


    On the other side, I was listening and watching as Gaea and Khepri discussed and worked with Defiant. They're nearly finished. "Add a second shunt device," I instructed them as they worked.


    "That's going to slow us down a little," Defiant replied.


    "Trust me, I have a plan," I told them. They, thankfully, didn't argue


    "Gods have great power, able to perform incredible miracles," I continued, buying the bit of time needed.


    "What miracles can you perform, then?" he smirked. "I have slaughtered and claimed my own kingdom. I have populated it with subjects loyal to my will and ready to service my every desire. What miracles have you performed?"


    I have created diseases that would scour life from this planet. "I have restored the dead to life," I answered slowly and dramatically, exploiting Clarice's painstakingly perfected voice. "I craft weapons powerful enough to slay other gods. I have seen those weapons turned upon the Endbringers, and then birthed armies from their dead flesh. I offered those armies to my Sister's consort as a tribute." Would he even remember the Endbringers, trapped behind this wall for as long as he has been? "I am the gatekeeper of life and death even for the immortals."


    "We're ready," Gaea informed me. She sounded more than a little upset right now, and much of it was probably caused by my speech. Sorry, Big Sister, this mission is more important than your discomfort. I could observe the unnatural calming influence from Taylia at work, making my words more palatable. Khepri agrees that, since this is working, it's the right thing to do.


    "Still, it is not my miracles that should concern you here, today," I finished. "I will agree that gods are not always known for benevolence, but we shall show you such blessings today. Behold."


    On the side, I gave the command. "Now."


    There was a crackle as the large amount of air was displaced and the mass shunted through. A living blob of psuedo-flesh, thousands of pounds of it, appeared. It was more like a large slab of raw roast beef with a pulse than anything else, and it smelled much the same. The outer layer, at least, was Yggdrasil tuned to work with the shunt drives, although the inner matter had been transmuted into something very much animal flesh.


    "What is that?" the bloated man-child asked, as dozens of his hidden minions started crawling out of the woodworks. Literally in more than a few cases. They came in many shapes and sizes, most childlike in their natures, three to four feet tall, hybrids of human and animal features. Few were functional lifeforms, clumsy and misshapen and only alive due to his power breaking many of the laws of biology. It seemed that Nilbog was more interested in creating creatures that looked like cartoons than he was in making life that could function as a viable being. They're toys, I realized quickly. No more indicative of his real capabilities than Fluffy was of mine. And created for the same reasons, an escape from loneliness.


    "It is the blessing we have brought to you and your kingdom," I answered. "Nourishment and strength for your subjects, enough to restore those you've lost."


    His minions rushed toward it, ready to devour it in their hunger and need. "Again," I instructed my friends. The slap of flesh vanished before the goblins reached the target. The ones nearby desperately lapped at the fluids left on the floor where it had sat.


    "What is the meaning of this?" he demanded, bellowing his rage as the minions turned toward me. They can kill this Clarice, I decided. Perhaps they could even destroy the newest model. Certainly this old one is doomed.


    Clarice, of course, showed no fear or concern. She could have, if I wanted her to. She could be very convincing, but now a lack of fear was ideal. "I believe we spoke earlier of what the punishment for denying gods should be. You claimed wrath and murder. I claimed that the greatest punishment was nothing. This is what I meant. You reject us, and we do nothing. We keep our blessings from you, and you are the one to suffer, while the true gods remain untouched and untroubled."


    The monsters kept advancing.


    "Attempt to harm me, and we can revoke the blessing permanently," I threatened. "Or acknowledge our godhood and accept our blessings, knowing that we are your betters. You are a king, are you not? Your duty is to your subjects first. Surely, the price we ask is nothing to the reward that comes from it?" Fuck you, Jack, I thought angrily in my head. Everything you used on me and others, all the tricks to manipulate the vulnerable and the unhinged. They are lessons I will never forget. Fuck you.


    The corpulent Nilbog avatar growled at me, causing his whole body to ripple. The goblins around him, however, stopped their approach, following cues that Clarice's sensors and my own deduction concluded was based upon smell, although I lacked enough data to understand those messages. "Very well," he finally spoke, feigning boredom. "You have proven you are indeed worthy of your claim to godhood."


    Clarice nodded, and I didn't even have a chance to speak before the slab of flesh appeared where it had been before. My team had clued in on the plan. It landed on several of the goblins, who made a series of unhappy noises that quickly turned to ravenous joy as they started feasting upon the meat from their trapped positions. A couple of the minions cut a comparatively small, but still several pound, chunk out of the thing and brought it before Nilbog.


    His eating habits are even messier than the Siberian's, I decided. Much of the material falling in bloody splatters across his body. Smaller, froglike creatures then crawled over him, lapping away the spilled mess. Nilbog moaned at the sensations of the cleaning.


    I heard Lisa retch in disgust. Highlight of my day, I decided. Clarice and I simply waited patiently until the gorging had finished.


    "Now that you have accepted our blessings, hear our vision for the future of your kingdom."


    Nilbog, still moaning lightly as the creatures scuttered across his body cleaning him, smiled at me. "I'm listening."


    "You are hated by those outside this wall," I started.


    "And I care?" he asked.


    "I expect you do not," I admitted. "But would it not be better to have neighbors beyond your kingdom? To hear tales of other lands? To have a kingdom more suited to your desires? My sister can provide all those things. A kingdom where the land itself serves your desires just as your subjects do."


    "You can do that?"


    "With ease," I answered. "Behold."


    I activated our dimensional viewing system, granting the Goblin King sight of our world. We were geosynchronous with a great dome lit in blues and greens. The walls were full of alcoves, some bright and some dark, promising an infinite variety of tunnels for the goblins to roam and explore. From my real body's perspective, I could see the inspiration that Gaea had used, the heart and circulatory system. It was incomplete, of course, but it was still massive and could be expanded upon almost infinitely.


    Nilbog reached out to touch a wall, and his hand passed through the illusion. He looked at me in awe and suspicion. "What is this?" he asked.


    "A vision of the future," I offered. "We can grant you that kingdom. You will be able to abandon this forsaken and dying kingdom in exchange for a territory whose beauty and bounty defies imagination. In exchange for swearing your loyalty and fealty to the God-Empresses of Avalon."


    He kept trying to touch the walls of the faux ventricle that would be part of his new home.


    "Yes, yes, this is truly a miracle worthy of godhood," he remarked appreciatively. The basis was Minerva's idea, using an animal body as inspiration. Passengers influence their hosts subconsciously, and in the case of someone like Nilbog with absolutely no other influences to muddy the waters, he would be as strongly motivated by the Passenger's desires as anyone could be. In this case, that influence took the form of alien worlds and biosystems. He'd be compelled to love this creation the same way an infant is compelled to love their mother's attention.


    "Then your oath of fealty?" I insisted.


    "You have it," he agreed eagerly, his fat rippling like a slow motion view of a water balloon right before it burst from his excited bouncing.


    "Good," I replied. "Now, let us discuss your first tasks as a vassal of the gods."


    =================

    A/N- Clarice takes all her school's drama and literature classes.
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2015
  16. Threadmarks: Amelia, Ch 227
    TanaNari

    TanaNari Verified Dick

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2015
    Messages:
    24,348
    Likes Received:
    260,014
    Amelia, Ch 227


    "You're certain about this?" Chief Director Costa-Brown asked. We, of course, knew her as Alexandria, but we hadn't even considered revealing that secret. In truth, she had done more good for us in her civilian guise as I could ever imagine her doing as a hero. Still, something of a comfort to have, an ally for this teleconference. The problem is, she was also terrifyingly difficult to keep secrets from, with her thinker powers. She'll probably figure out we've already removed Nilbog during this meeting.


    "Yes," Taylor responded from her position beside me. "Dinah Alcott's predictions have always served well for us in the past. She gives the SM7M a guaranteed victory, and our new containment method developed between us and the guild, means we won't see the deaths that her prior calculations produced."


    "You still haven't identified the cause?" Costa-Brown asked.


    "I'm afraid not," I admitted. "We've put a great deal of effort into planning for every possible outcome, and somewhere along the way we finally found something that works. We won't know why until we see it in action." We won't find out, because we'll never see it in action, I thought. Our solution was to him our world's equivalent to Madagascar. It was large enough for him to imagine himself a great and powerful ruler over a vast kingdom which he would populate with monsters that, in some ways, were as dangerous as our own. And it isolated enough to keep any incidents from occurring.


    "Pardon the interruption," one of the other fifteen Directors spoke. He looked more like a scientist than a military type, and the name below read Armstrong. "I have read the reports on the M7Ms, but I don't recall anything about an SM7M, would you please elaborate?"


    I glanced over at Taylor. AffirmationDeflection. Her eyes glanced over at the only Director actually in the room with us. Calvert, or Coil, or our puppet, depending on how generous you were feeling when you identified him. "Of course," I spoke. "It would probably be best for Director Calvert to handle the details. He knows more about the remote operatives than Khepri and I."


    He nodded. "Very well," he agreed. "As you are already familiar with the M7, I can make this brief. The full name is the Simurgh enhanced Model Seven Military. Its existence is so classified that if you must refer to it, the 'S' stands for 'Specialized'."


    "Simurgh model?" one of the others asked incredulously. His name read 'Tagg'.


    "Correct," I answered. "In many ways, it's not as good as the normal M7s. It's easily the most durable design, capable of regeneration much as the Endbringers themselves are, and at least partially power resistant. Nothing short of a six on your rankings should even be able to scratch them. The problem is, they don't work with a lot of tech we put into the other models. No stealth, no high energy cost systems. They're good at exactly what they're good at, and nothing else." Unless they're the Clarice model, which actually uses the Endbringer tissue as a power supply, in which case they're better at everything than any prior model.


    "You've weaponized Endbringers!?" he exclaimed. "What else have you built? Are your anti-Endbringer constructs made of this material?"


    "Of course," Taylor answered. "Well, some of them at least. Others are still conventional. As a nation, we understand the need for a versatile military force."


    "So the rumors are true," another man spoke up. His panel identified him as Director Vance. "The UN acknowledged your request."


    "Three days shy of a month ago," Taylor replied. "We are recognized as the rulers of the interim government presiding over Earth Avalon. The exact details of our future, more permanent government is still in flux, which if anything renders our need for a strong military even greater for relatively vulnerable position on the world stage. While I don't doubt that our functionally sole neighbor, the United States, would aid us in a crisis, we'd prefer to have the capacity to respond to troubles ourselves."


    "You are aware this calls into question the legality of Pantheon taking any action within the United States, correct?" Costa-Brown asked.


    "We are," Taylor replied. "However, that only applies to myself, Gaea, and Minerva. All other Pantheon members as of this moment still retain their United States citizenship exclusively. They are members of our team, but not citizens of Avalon. Much the same way that the Guild and the Protectorate operate, with members from a number of countries. Still, yes, as of this moment the founding members of Pantheon are unable to act as heroes within the United States without violating international law. It's one of the reasons we're choosing to give the PRT command of this mission. Because, as you might imagine, we could have used our own weapons to assault Ellisburg, instead of giving them to you."


    "One of the reasons?" a woman by the name of Newton asked. "That implies there are other motivations. I would like to hear them." A few of the other Directors spoke their agreement. Meanwhile, Costa-Brown simply watched in interest. She wants to see us handle politics on our own, I realized. She has Lisa's measure, now she wants to know how we handle things.


    "There's no way to say this nicely," I replied. "But, frankly, you need the victory."


    "Pardon?" Tagg asked.


    "You still haven't recovered from India," I replied. "Things are holding together, but every public victory has been Pantheon's. It's eroding the public's faith in the PRT and everyone here knows it. Your reputation is badly damaged."


    "By your actions," Tagg's voice was calm, but hostile. Ice. AnnoyanceDistaste.


    "We weren't the ones that put Piggot in a position of such power, and with so little oversight," Taylor pointed out. "But let's not slip into petty recriminations. We want the PRT to have a public victory in the near future. One that reminds the criminal groups that there are powers out there beside Pantheon that can actually get anything important done."


    "Having trouble with the responsibility of dealing with criminal elements on such a scale?" Tagg asked.


    "Not hardly," Taylor responded. I tried to push calming emotions into the link, she was getting baited into an argument. She faltered for a second. "It is as the Chief Director pointed out. I am now part of the ruling body of another nation. I have a new set of priorities and responsibilities to consider, the wellbeing of what will soon become my own people. As you are responsible for yours. So, let me ask you this question, all of you. What do you believe happens when Avalon goes public?"


    Tagg's eyes narrowed. "It would be easier for you to simply tell us what you think," he responded.


    Taylor shrugged. "Very well," she replied. SmugSuccess. "Pantheon as it currently functions is perceived as holding together most of the East Coast in the face of a slow descent into complete anarchy. A perception that's true, incidentally. When we go public as our own nation, we will functionally become a foreign power. At which point, the United States of America, supposedly the most powerful government in the world, will be openly and directly relying upon an outside military to help it maintain order within its own borders. You have to know how bad that will be."


    Tagg froze. Everyone did. For a full minute, no one spoke. I could imagine some of their thoughts. In a country as fiercely independent as the USA, that would be perceived of as a glaring weakness. Some would support us, others would demand we leave, others still would find any number of reactions. The only thing universally true is that no one would be able to ignore it, and under no circumstances would it be anything but a nightmare for all of us involved.


    "I believe we all see your point," Costa-Brown agreed. "The Endbringer conflicts are, of course, a separate factor. If anything, foreign aid during those is an affirmation of our country's status. The Protectorate has always offered to aid all foreign powers during those, and receiving aid in return would prove the value of that policy. But in any other circumstance, it could prove disastrous."


    "It's better for us to fade into the background," I continued the thought. "It will still be our weaponry, but that's little different than any other foreign trade. We'll likely have similar treaties with Canada and many other countries."


    "We're more than able and willing to stand as a very powerful foreign nation," Taylor added. "If at some point in the future we're perceived of as even more powerful than America, you won't see me losing any sleep over it. But the critical component is that we need to be seen as a foreign nation. The alliance that Pantheon forged between independent cape groups can remain. Pantheon will take a supporting role, instead of playing the role of the 'conquering heroes'. With exception of the Endbringer battles. During those, there are no politics or countries. There is only the enemy of all mankind, and those heroes who would fight them."


    "Very well said," Costa-Brown responded. "I could not agree more. I doubt anyone would object to Pantheon's assistance at future Endbringer conflicts," she paused for a moment, giving all the directors a chance to disagree. None took the opportunity. "However, withdrawing from active involvement in the USA's affairs is clearly the wisest decision, and I appreciate your foresight in this matter."


    "Thank you, Chief Director," I responded. It was actually Lisa's foresight, but you already know that.


    "It does beg the question," A Director Gutierez spoke up. "Why are you choosing Ellisburg?"


    "Honestly, that was Director Calvert's suggestion," Taylor volunteered. "We only needed a scenario that would grant a high profile victory to your PRT, we weren't especially concerned with the specifics." A complete lie, we very much wanted to go after Nilbog, much like we went after the Teeth and Fallen. Plans just got... twisted... a bit, under the circumstances.


    "Pantheon came to me for advice on the subject of targets," Calvert nodded. "With the Guild's removal of Heartbreaker, and their elimination of the Teeth, Fallen, and Slaughterhouse Nine. There aren't many truly monstrous and and well known villains remaining. At least, not ones who warrant such a dramatic response, or would elicit such positive coverage in the aftermath."


    "The Wild Hunt?" a Director Tucker asked. She looked an awful lot like an old, skeletal librarian. She brought up a group that stuck to the desert states, a parahuman biker gang that one that might be called a low profile variant of the Slaughterhouse Nine.


    "If we could predict their next attack," Calvert responded. "The remote controlled troops have range limits, and we can't deploy them over that kind of space without spreading our forces too thin to do any real good. Until they resurface, there's very little we can achieve. As Gaea and Khepri pointed out, there is some urgency in finding that high profile success. We know exactly where to find Nilbog, we know our success rate is guaranteed, with the worst possible outcome being the destruction of a few disposable troops."


    "The argument is compelling," Costa-Brown agreed. "Certainly we will retain control over the SM7Ms after Ellisburg, to deploy in future high profile missions."


    "That is correct," Taylor replied. "They have a very long shelf life. They will not break to simple wear and tear, or even moderate combat punishment due to the Endbringer tissue's regeneration. Chances are, they'll only need to be replaced when rendered obsolete by newer, superior, designs."


    "Coupled with your precog's assurances that the Nilbog mission will result in a victory," Costa-Brown responded. "I do believe we can consider this the second test run of the PRT as a primary force against parahuman aggression, instead of as a supporting force for our parahumans. In a way, it seems poetic that it should be Ellisburg which marks this evolution in policy."


    "Glad you see it my way," Calvert responded. "I have already outlined a primary strategy based upon my own experiences and intel gathered by Dragon's equipment that I would like to present to you. I'm sending copies now for your review."


    "I believe this is where we see ourselves out," Taylor spoke. "We've done our part here, and should attend to our other responsibilities."


    "Very well," Costa-Brown nodded. "Thank you for your time. And congratulations on your new status as world leaders."


    =============

    A/N- The real reason they chose Madagascar is as revenge from a certain video game that Riley and Amelia constantly lose at.

    Can't believe none of my readers thought about the political ramifications of their going public as a nation while still playing around as a super group.
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2015
Loading...